creators_name: Gabora, L. M. 
creators_id: liane.gabora@ubc.ca
type: journalp
datestamp: 2008-03-10 14:53:07
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:57:05
metadata_visibility: show
title: Why the Creative Process is Not Darwinian
ispublished: pub
subjects: cog-psy
subjects: bio-socio
subjects: bio-evo
full_text_status: public
keywords: creativity, Darwinian theory, blind variation selective retention model, natural selection, Guernica, Picasso, evolution, evolutionary theory
abstract: Simonton (2006) makes the unwarranted assumption that nonmonotonicity supports a Darwinian view of creativity. Darwin’s theory of natural selection was motivated by a paradox that has no equivalent in creative thought: the paradox of how change accumulates when acquired traits are not inherited. To describe a process of cumulative change in which acquired traits are retained is outside of the scope of the theory of natural selection. Even the early evolution of life itself (prior to genetically mediated template replication) cannot be described by natural selection. Specifically, natural selection cannot describe change of state that involves horizontal (Lamarckian) exchange, or occurs through interaction with an incompletely specified context. It cannot describe change wherein variants are evaluated sequentially, and wherein this evaluation can itself change the state space and/or fitness function, because no two variants are ever evaluated according to the same selection criterion. Concerns are also raised as to the methodology used in Simonton’s study.
date: 2007
date_type: published
publication: Creativity Research Journal
volume: 19
number: 4
pagerange: 361-365
refereed: TRUE
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citation:   Gabora, Dr. L. M.   (2007) Why the Creative Process is Not Darwinian.  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/5961/1/guernica.htm