Creativity in biology and in the human mind (manifestation of concepts)

The article is based on the widely held notion that creativity is a phenomenon studied in two branches of the science of life: psychology (in a wide sense) on one side, and evolutionary biology on the other. Therefore, an analysis of creativity of the mind should contribute to the solution of problems in biological evolution, problems which cannot be fully explained by the orthodox assumption of small steps of mutation and selection. This analysis is restricted to three classes of creativity, which are: a) organismal creativity, as exemplified by the creation of organs such as "eye" and "heart". b) mental-scientific creativity, exemplified by Newton's notion of "gravity" between planets and stars. c) mental-technological creativity, exemplified by Gutenberg's invention of "printing by movable types". The analysis of these classes is based on concepts, which are interrelated structurally by means of propositions. Two types of propositions are distinguished: factual ones named "cognita", and hypothetical ones named "hypothetical episodes". A further basis of the analysis is the assumption that creativity consists of several phases, of which incubation and insight are the essential ones. In carrying out the analysis, the writer shows that incubation functions on two or three lines of thought, one of which can be expressed by factual cognita, and the other ones predominantly by hypothetical episodes. Those several lines are integrated by means of logical implication, by which insight into a novel concept is obtained. In a second method of analysis, the several lines of incubation are represented by networks. In this method, the novel concept is obtained by integrating the individual networks into a common structure. It is proved that the methods of analysis described above can be applied to all three classes of creativity definined previously. Drawing conclusions from the analysis, the writer points out that the organismal concepts were manifested in biological evolution many millions of years prior to the appearance of man and his brain on earth. The writer, therefore, argues that a great number of concepts are not a creation of man's mind, but are entities which pre-existed man and were manifested to him. Such concepts may be conceived as forming a time-independent "conceptual universe" external to the "material universe" of galaxies, stars and organisms. Thus, for example, the concept of an "eye" was manifested in biological evolution as the organ "eye" of many organisms. Much later, this concept was manifested to man, when he invented the optical camera.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)