18. SPECIFIC CREATIVITY

Let us emphasize once again our initial postulates: the specificity of creativity can be distinguished only on the basis of the approach to it as a special activity and as a special way of activity with the obligatory account of the fundamental novelty of its result for the subject of activity. We deliberately now refuse to consider the peculiarities of creativity as the process of activity itself, as a certain sequence of “acts”, but we will try to characterize the “feature” of creativity through the basic essential parameters (if you like, “moments” or “stages”) that seem necessary and our view, sufficient to define the very concept of "creativity".
What exactly can be described as “creative” at the first stage of activity - at the stage of understanding the problem and defining the task (goal)?
Any activity assumes, as a starting point, the awareness of some real (external or “internal”) situation as a situation of a problem, some objective phenomenon or process (material or spiritual) as a problem. A creative approach to activity begins with defining the attitude to the world (or to oneself as part of the world) as a “problem” relationship, but not only in finding the problem as such, but above all in the willingness and ability to “see” the problem there and where it has not been seen before, an ability that concentrates and “materializes” in a conscious attitude towards the perception of reality as the “world of problems”. With such an installation, creativity is generated not only and not so much due to the fact that the person is in a situation that requires a non-standard approach. Of course, in a situation where the subject is faced with the inability to act according to well-known schemes and patterns, creative activity is stimulated, but can also manifest itself in any “typical” circumstances. Let us emphasize: the point here is not the psychological ability to see problems that are potentially peculiar to every person - the matter is psychological readiness to speculate on the problem as such, “problem-for-me”, in a certain psychological setting that is essentially specific to creativity. Where there is no revelation of a new problem for a subject, where there is no speculation of it just like a problem, there — at this initial stage — there is no creativity either.
Let us turn to the formulation of a creative task: the process of goal-setting and definition of a goal. The problem facing the subject may be new (open to them for the first time) and the “old” - if only not solved. At the problem setting level, the subject can “accept”, sometimes specifying and improving (or even summing up or “synthesizing”) the previous parameters or “formulations” of the task - in which case he does not manifest any creativity at this stage. But he can call into question and reflection the very "formulations": the very definition of the essence of the task, never automatically resulting from the existence of some objective problem. He can consciously and purposefully try to set the task in a new way: “look” at it like no one else before him. In this - and only in this - case, he takes a creative approach to the task, and only under this condition is creativity possible at this stage of activity. Creativity here consists in a conscious installation on the refusal to recognize as axioms any theoretical propositions and even “facts” - absolutely everything (or a substantial part of everything), which was taken to be “undoubted” earlier, from relating to this problem and to this task.
At the goal-setting level, a creative approach means a quantitative and qualitative expansion of the system of goals and objectives, and specifying the task “in a new way” can be accompanied by a “narrowing” of the method, but always associated with going beyond the limits of the previously existing or discovering new problem area.
The psychological mechanism of this "exit" is the creative imagination. The problematics of creative imagination, both psychologically and ontologically, have been thoroughly studied; we only note the following: in itself, imagination does not become creative outside the application to the creative task itself, so creativity does not come down to the work of imagination, although it is impossible without the latter. The principle installation on the “possibility of the unbelievable”, including in relation to the true “nature and measure” of the object of the task - a specific object of activity, is a necessary condition for creativity at the stage of goal-setting and the transition to the “planning” of the relevant goals of the actions - necessary, but by no means sufficient condition for creativity.
At the level of “determination” of the strategic program of activity and preliminary selection of its tactics, a creative or non-creative approach is determined, in principle, by the same fundamental criteria. The preliminary determination of the strategy and tactics of the activity (its general method) decisively determines the presence and level of creativity in all future activities - or the lack of creativity. Even the “not creatively” task can be solved in a “creative” way and to get at the same time, although relatively rarely and not as a rule, a fundamentally new (creative) end result. Solving the “creatively” task in an “uncreative” way, it is hardly possible to get a “creative” result, unless in a random way. The choice of an already tested activity strategy (tested by predecessors or by the subject of activity), used to solve more or less similar tasks, is non-creative in nature and predominantly (in most cases, but not absolutely) predetermines the non-creative nature of follow-up and non-creative nature (also in absolute In most cases, although such a predominance is not so massive, the result obtained. The practice of scientific creativity shows how often the inertia of approved approaches hinders finding the right strategy and the solution of the problem itself. Only the choice of a fundamentally new strategy for solving a problem (including creating a work of art, communicative activity, and self-improvement of the subject as “activities” on solving original problems) is the choice of a fundamentally new way of working (in any case, fundamentally new with respect to the tasks of this type) - means creativity at this stage of activity.
So, only a deliberate purposeful installation on the search and discovery of a fundamentally new way of activity in this particular case, i.e. a fundamentally new strategy in solving this type of tasks (we emphasize: not to search for “expedient” ways to solve this problem at all, but to discover a new way of solving this type of problem), represents, at the planning stage, a creative approach to activities. As in the previous stages, especially at the level of formulating the task and building the initial hypothesis, a necessary condition for such an approach is - at least at the preliminary stage of “choosing” a future action strategy - a fundamental refusal to “agree” with the strategies of its predecessors and even generally approved ones. ways in this area of ​​activity, the obligatory search for a fundamentally new way of activity, even if it does not end with the discovery of an essentially new strategy, but will bring substantial recombination ezhnyh strategies.
At the same time, already at the stage of planning and programming (and even more so in further activities), another criterion, another imperative of creativity is of fundamental importance: it is rarely feasible at previous stages, and often even the requirement to conform to the search for a new strategy and future tactics with the specifics of the subject of the activity - with the “source material” and the predicted result area, namely with both of them simultaneously and inseparably. The features of such a co-formation are manifested fully in the process of the creative work of the subject, in what is usually considered to be a creative activity and that has been well studied and described by numerous researchers. We will only note that not only the effectiveness of the latter, its success, but also the real, not the illusory possibility (and level) of creativity depend on the comprehension of the “nature and measure” of the object of activity and on the ability to conform with them in methods, means, techniques. in its further process. Therefore, a conscious installation on the optimal combination of maximum innovative daring in choosing a way of activity (strategy and tactics of solving a problem) with a correct and even “respectful” attitude to its subject, i.e. conscious installation on the same self-criticism and impartiality in relation to their own “choice” of the mode of activity, as well as on the “overthrow of the authorities” in relation to the experience of their predecessors, is an integral element of a truly creative approach to activity already at the initial stage, as, indeed, on all subsequent.
TEST 18
1. What does the concept of "subject" express?
? man of the outside world
? doubtful person
? knowledgeable person
? oligarch
2. What is a parameter?
? it's two meters
? flat figure border
? constant letter
? this is the border of the territory
3. What do you mean by "reflection"?
? acupuncture
? baseless dreaming
? set of reflexes
? meditation
4. What is a “strategy”?
? common vision
? military council before the fight
? activities of the commander in chief
? misinformation of the enemy
5. What does it mean to test?
? reject
? approve
? make fun of
? expose to the end
6. What is the meaning of the word "communication"?
? bad communication
? a television
? e-mail transfer
? message, communication
7. How does tactics differ from strategy?
? these are generally incompatible words
? nothing
? tactic is the fulfillment of strategic goals