[Seminar] A Daoist Theory of Creativity(4/14)

Seminar

Speaker: Mr. Davide Andrea Zappulli

PhD candidate, University of British Columbia

Ministry of Education Short-Term Research Award (STRA) Visiting Scholar

Title: A Daoist Theory of Creativity

Date: 15:30 – 17:30 pm, Monday,     April 14, 2025

Venue: Conference Room 302, Department of     Philosophy, ShuiYuan Campus, National   Taiwan University (18, SiYuan Street,   Taipei)

Abstract: 

This paper interprets the Zhuangzi 莊子 in order to offer a theory of the creative process. According to this theory, creativity is grounded in processes that consist of spontaneously accessing a perspective on a circumstance, where perspectives are in turn defined as ways of representationally construing circumstances. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section begins by clarifying some necessary notions to theorize about creativity. I introduce a distinction between divergent and convergent thinking and focus on the former. In the second section, I turn to textual interpretation. I argue that the Zhuangzi embraces a form of perspectivism and that the text understands perspectives as ways of mapping representations onto reality. Then, I propose a semi-formal definition of perspectives. In section three, I utilize the proposed notion of a perspective to formulate a semi-formal definition of creativity as the capacity to spontaneously access a perspective on a circumstance. In section four, I offer a review of various strands of empirical evidence for the proposed model in the context of discussing a transformative practice that the text proposes to improve our creative capacities.