Creativity And Inspiration

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Cardiff University, UK

Abstract

While one version of belief in inspiration, for which the inspired human passively receives inspired deliverances, precludes human creativity, another, for which inspired compositions reflect human agency and ingenuity, presupposes it. Margaret Boden, however, suggests (in The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms (2004)) that creativity is continuous with generic human powers, and also arises through infringing recognised rules. While the former suggestion (about continuity) is argued to be readily acceptable, problems are raised for the rule-breaking account of creativity. Accounts of creativity need to be supplemented with awareness that creativity commonly involves participation in traditions of skill or craftsmanship, and in a creative community, whether rules are broken or not. Further, the continuity approach is argued to be consistent with at least one particular variant of belief in inspiration, according to which God, as the universal Creator, can communicate through the imagination of receptive minds that reflect his/her creative imagination, as suggested by Austin Farrer in ‘Inspiration: Poetical and Divine’ (1963). Other faculties as well as the imagination are held to be involved, in a manner consistent with the continuity approach: perception, memory, reflectiveness, historical awareness and artistic ingenuity.

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References

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Boden, M. A. (2004). The Creative Mind: myths and mechanisms (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Farrer, A. (1963). Inspiration: poetical and divine. In F. F. Bruce (Ed.), Promise and Fulfilment: essays presented to Professor S. H. Hooke, T. & T. Clark.
Fowler, H. N., & Lamb, W. R. M. (Eds.). (1942). Plato with an English Translation: Vol. III. the statesman, Philebus, Ion (Loeb Classical Library). Harvard University Press.
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Journal of Philosophical Investigations
Volume 20, Issue 54 - Serial Number 54
Articles
February 2026
Pages 1-10

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