The word creativity comes from the Latin creato, which can be translated into English as I create. It is, therefore - the ability to create. Creativity is not, and this must be emphasized, a permanent disposition of man. It is not easy to say that one person is creative and another is not. Creativity is a state of mind rather than a permanent disposition, though there are people who can induce such a state and, conversely, those who steadfastly avoid it. But don't feel bad if you don't consider yourself to be a creative thinker. During the course, we will do practical exercises on creativity, and together, we will discover that even people who think they aren't creative can actually experience very creative moments.

To define creativity, it is necessary to mention the so-called creative problems. These are those whose solutions correspond to creative thinking. The following four points can characterise them:

• They are new - there is no solution yet. They are not necessarily big problems but often small everyday situations.
• They are socially significant - creative thinking, in general, cannot be combined with inventing absurd and useless things like a square circle, which may be an excellent creative warm-up but is not a creative problem. The problem needs to be socially recognized, at least in potency (maybe no one needs to see it yet).
• They are open-ended - they are often broad and ill-defined problems that need to be narrowed down appropriately, or a suitable source of information identified that is not readily available.
• They are unbounded - they have multiple correct solutions or paths to get to them.

Cambridge Dictionary defines creativity as producing and using original and unusual ideas. What does it mean? First, creativity can be seen theoretically, i.e. as the production of pictures that are fundamentally different from anything that has ever existed. An example is Einstein, who came up with the idea of the finite speed of light in all frames of reference. The idea itself is creative because it has no simple deductive procedure. You think about the world, solve problems, and gradually get an idea.

The second and much more common approach to the perception of creativity is applying an idea or process to a situation where we would not expect it. An example of such creativity is the late 80s/early 90s TV character MacGyver, a secret agent can use his shoelaces nd a key to creat a deadly weapon, a device to bridge the distance between two buildings, or a trap for criminals. He can always make something from minimal resources to help him solve a problem he doesn't have the "normal" resources to overcome. The series is, of course, very far-fetched, but it clearly shows that creativity doesn't only have to manifest itself in big ideas but also particular situations.

Artists from Plato until almost the Renaissance were judged primarily by their ability to imitate. Imitation, copying another, was not seen as a vice or a problem but as a virtue, the key to artistic activity. Only on the threshold of the Renaissance did the creative possibility of arbitrary creation emerge; art emerged as a process of creating something new. This is the subject of the story of Giotto's O, told by Vasari in his biography of Giotto, and which we reproduce here from Feyerabend's Science as Art:

What is the story actually about? The three essentials manifest creativity in Giotto:

• Originality - he is the one who wants to differentiate himself, chooses a different approach than the others, and looks for a solution that is unconventional and yet corresponds to the assignment he has received.
• With courage - Giotto was undoubtedly taking quite a risk, competing for one of the most prestigious commissions anyone could ask for. Yet he chose a course of action that could have ended in absolute failure, entering a space of uncertainty.
• Expertise - Giotto is not an average painter; he can make genuinely top-quality works thanks to his perfect technique, and he understands art. If he didn't possess these characteristics, not only would he not think of submitting an "ordinary circle", but he would not be able to do it with such precision and sharpness. Some people downplay expertise and creativity skills, but this approach is not ideal.

It is the importance of the third that Feyerabend particularly emphasizes. He says that creativity has become a buzzword that can be found everywhere. It has become a chant that seems to exist by itself. But it doesn't. "There are many voices in the sciences who attribute important scientific findings not to the successive application of a rigorous method but rather to the bold ideas of individual scientists. Do not be afraid of the sciences - so preach the apostles' creativity to a wide audience. The expansion of the sciences does not mean that everything is now arid and reduced to formulas, for great science is not different from great art. In both cases, one needs to have a natural expertise. But he also still needs creative ideas." Creativity, then, needs expertise or skill. The three O's we have listed above constitute the inseparable aspects of anything that could be described as creativity in our sense of the word.

Defining creativity itself is complex and ambiguous, so it is a typical creative problem. Marie König states it is "the ability to create new cultural technical, spiritual and material values in all fields of human activity. Creativity is an activity that produces previously unknown and, at the same time, social creations." Theresa Amabile then says that "a work or a solution to a problem is considered creative to the extent that it is a new, useful, correct, and beneficial solution to a given task, and also to the extent that the task is heuristic (exploratory, original, presupposing a new solution) rather than algorithmic (a familiar task with a routine solution)."

It can also be seen as "the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, etc.; to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc., using originality, progressivity, or imagination." Hlavsa argues that "creativity is a progression in subject-object relations in which new ways of being and co. With the formation of consciousness, a new product." Many other definitions could be found, but "the attempt to give a settled definition of creativity is probably misguided since definitions tend to be biased by a particular theory."

The temporal dimension of such creativity is fascinating. Wallas describes the process of creativity with the idea that we need a certain amount of time to incubate a solution to find a suitable solution. Creativity is not the work of a moment or a flash but a process.

The now-almost-forgotten Czech philosopher Josef Ludvík Fischer wrote a short essay on idleness. Idleness is an activity generally perceived as wrong and morally decadent. A person called to work in the world, to action or contemplation, does nothing useful. He wastes the time allotted to his being, and nothing remains. Society races to see who has run more miles, visited a better exhibition, or read a better monograph. Rest has been replaced by active leisure. This, too, must be planned, managed, actively reflected upon and used for self-development. There is no place for relaxation or idleness in the life of modern man.

But Fischer comes up with something of a rant in support of idleness. There is much beauty in the world. And interesting things. It's just that we can't notice them while we're busy with small and big problems. We drown them out with activity. We don't see the world around us or within ourselves sharply. Everything shuffles along according to a set plan and schedule. Idleness consists of letting go of everything, opening our eyes and watching. Fischer talks about the art of idleness. We discover the most incredible, beautiful and essential things through it. Idleness is the only way to things that have real depth.

Where time is a burden, there is no idleness, writes Fischer. It is merely an escape from boredom, an activity everyone will admit is foolish. Why should one run away from boredom? To turn boredom into idleness, one must do two things. First, one must stop seeing time as a burden, a pressure, and one's vacation in the world as a to-do list. Idleness, that is, space to be with oneself, is a crucial aspect of creativity. Workaholism, working all the time, is inefficient and does not allow for that stimulation and change of thought patterns, that space for creativity.

Kozbelt, Beghetto and Runco discuss small and large creativity (following Kaufman ). They distinguish between the creativity of genius creators and inventors such as Mozart, Newton or Picasso, who have so-called enormous creativity. That is the ability to make extraordinary discoveries that others cannot achieve through normal means. Such creative people are few, estimated at less than 5%. But the point here is that anyone can be creative. In this case, we are talking about so-called small-scale creativity, i.e. the use of new techniques or the production of new ideas, which are often very mundane. We devise a way to cook a dish more deliciously or calculate a tricky example. We think of a new interpretation of a Bible verse or a poem. All this is hidden under the name of a bit of creativity. Everyone is capable of it, and it can be adapted quite quickly, which is one of the aims of this course.

For thinking in general, according to Guilford, a distinction can be made between so-called linear, i.e. convergent, and divergent thinking. Linear thinking is associated with a focus on a pre-known, or at least logically resulting, process for solving a problem. We follow it step by step until we reach the goal. This way of thinking is significant when solving already-known problems or describing the discovery of a new phenomenon. Its main advantage is that it is easily repeatable, explored, and refined. However, the problem with such thinking is that it can be challenging to find new solutions, ideas or approaches. It is, therefore, usually (though not accurately) perceived as uncreative.

On the other hand, divergent thinking does not follow a single course of action but seeks to work with a large amount of information and reflect on it creatively. It seeks multiple ways to solve problems, is unstructured, non-repeatable, and lacks precision. It prefers quantity over quality. This is what we usually associate with creativity.

Holm-Hadulla and his colleagues developed the dialectical theory of creativity, arguing that creative thinking (i.e., creativity) occurs when divergent. Convergent thinking meets over some common problems. Therefore, the basis of invention is the dialectical relationship between order and chaos from which new ideas emerge. However, it is advisable to avoid the simple schematism that one form of thinking is better than the other. Both are important and suited to something slightly different.

We have already hinted at another problem with creativity in the quality and quantity dispute. In invention, the assumption is that abundance creates quality. If we produce many ideas and solutions, no matter how refined or workable they are, we will get better results than if we focus from the start only on those that we think are workable and right. On this principle, a relatively large number of creative techniques are based.

Especially in the popularization literature, there is talk about activities associated with a particular brain. In this case, the left hemisphere is associated with language, logic, writing, counting, motor skills or working with time; and the right, perception of music, colours, imagination, working with space or dreaming, and sensitivity to complexity is typical.

Koestler believes that creativity occurs when two very different frameworks of thought intersect. These are applied to a single phenomenon, the understanding of which is suddenly quite different from how we have understood it so far. This explains a lot in the field of creativity - for example, we come up with some ideas by solving a problem and being unable to find a solution for a long time. Then, we walk, and the changing environment and stimuli help us find a solution. For example, the author of these lines often finds solutions to problems at his desk In the office or while jogging, depending on where the concept originates and how complex it is. Changing frameworks, whether by knowing more disciplines or changing the environment, is essential. After all, this is one of the reasons why double majors are promoted as the preferred form of undergraduate education in the Anglo-Saxon environment. Too rapid a specialisation (however convenient and compelling at first sight) would limit the scope for having two entirely different frameworks of thought.

There is one more critical question, namely, what is new or original. The first aspect we described above: 'Is there anything new at all? Perhaps the basic claim about novelty is not that the new does not exist but that it is difficult to parse and describe, so this element lacks ultimate relevance in discussing the mechanisms of creativity - development remains stable. At the same time, the process can be repeated." Novelty is the characteristic that is the most complex in considering creativity. Firstly, it is highly subjective (what is new for one person may not be new at all for another), and at the same time, it is highly contextual. There is nothing unusual about using a hammer or a digger as long as it is not used as an artistic tool. This is why creativity is sometimes said to be culturally bounded - both by what is considered new and valuable in it in the first place and by the basic framing of the whole concept.

Austin Kleon writes in his book Steal Like an Artist that nothing new is being created. Everything is just a rearrangement, a unique contextual setting or a retelling of what has already been said. In other words, creativity is not about novelty per se but the ability to observe well what others are doing. And at the appropriate moment, it is also about the art of taking and processing it appropriately, putting it in a new context, and connecting it. This is another way of looking at creativity and agreeing with Feyerabend that scholarship, expertise and insight are crucial to creativity.

Many people imagine that the great discoveries of science are the work of chance - someone puts something down somewhere, forgets or leaves it, and it becomes mouldy, irradiated or starts moving. Accordingly, we face the discoveries of penicillin, radioactivity and the relationship between magnetic fields and electric currents. It's as if science and the sciences are the product of chance. It is not so completely random, t is just one of the four phases we go through while solving a problem.

Graham Wallas names four essential phases of the creative process or, more generally, the innovative approach to problem-solving. Understanding the mechanism and the importance of each step is very important for creative thinking, as it allows us to improve the process of finding ideas.

Preparation

A critical step that cannot be skipped is preparing to solve the problem. At this stage, you need to formulate the primary question or concern to which you will seek a solution. Often, it may turn out that the right question is a little different, but the work in the preparation phase will always pay off for the person. During this time, one must retrieve, study, calculate and experiment with solutions that come immediately to mind or are perceived as standard in the industry.

All other phases stand and fall on what one studies and works on during the preparation. It is not just an activity directed towards one particular thing or phenomenon. Of course, one uses the experience gained elsewhere when working on other questions or tasks.

Incubation 

If the problem is not entirely trivial, you often won't find a solution immediately. Incubation is when you are not directly addressing the issue but doing something else. The important thing is that it is an unconscious process. But the brain is designed in such a way that it keeps working on unfinished tasks, which sometimes manifests itself as a "bad conscience" that says you haven't done something or accomplished something appears here in the role of problem solver.

Doing something different enriches your thought world with new stimuli that can help with the solution. It is not known how incubation takes place. For some people, a walk works best. For others, a visit to a gallery or perhaps learning another subject. However it functions for you, the brain is subconsciously working on the problem and looking for a suitable solution.

Thus, walking away from an unfinished task or unresolved issue may not be laziness but a purposeful effort to promote incubation. Everyone should see what helps and best suits them the most.

Inspiration

Inspiration is sometimes referred to as the "aha effect". It is when a solution suddenly comes to a person, often not in pieces, but all at once. It is not suddenly permanent, so it is worth trying to quickly write down or process the ideas gained during this phase. If you come back to them in the morning, for example, it is often possible to refine them and add detail so that the result is perfect. Inspiration is the only step that is difficult to foster and develop purposefully. Many creative crises are based on the fact that inspiration does not come even after relatively good preparation or a long period of incubation.

Verification

Some so-called creative people don't have this phase of working with an idea. Not everything one comes up with is functional, exciting and valuable. A creative person can look at their concept from a distance and critically evaluate it. If they find any problems or flaws, it is possible to use these as a basis for further reflection and to proceed iteratively towards the optimal solution of which one is capable.