Publication Details

Abstract

In this paper, several principles that define the creative condition are formulated. The shift from the everyday attitude to the creative one may be described as a disruption of both normal perception and established structures of meaning. This can happen to us by chance, but it can also be induced deliberately. Creative thinking techniques from Edward De Bono, as well as some improvisational activities, aim intentionally to disturb the natural perception and thus open the area of not-knowing. This is not the Socratic not-knowing which poses a question about what we do not know and thus, at the same time, indicates the direction whence the answer should be expected. Creative not-knowing only opens up the space in which one can afford to delay the question. This paper shows how creative not-knowing differs from the hermeneutical understanding of openness, and why we should learn something new from delaying a question instead of posing it.