creativity & learning

8/12/2019 Creativity & Learning

1/31

CREATIVITY + LEARNINGCritical Realism

02 June 2014


2/31

ReferencesBhaskar, R. (2002). Philosophy of

MetaReality: Creativity, Love andFreedom.London: Routledge.Bhaskar, R. (2002). From Science to

Emancipation: Alienation and theActuality of Enlightenment. New

Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage.


3/31


4/31

- one of the ultimate & essential qualities of thecosmos apart fromLoveand Freedom

- also an essential underlying basic property ofhuman being by virtue of our ground-state

- even if often dominated, occluded, &concealed in the world by the surfaceregimentation/fixation that is, however,

parasitic on it (TINA formation)PMR

CREATIVITY


5/31

The concepts of absence& emergenceas essential to creativity & learning (self-

development) The 5 circles of creation ( learning) The goals of education

Outline


6/31

STADION OF THE ONTOLOGICAL-AXIOLOGICAL CHAIN/PHASE OF

PMR>CR Elements of the Human

Creative Process Dialectic of Learning1M NON-IDENTITYTR will (initial impulse or calling) enfolded or implicitknowledge

2E NEGATIVITYCN creation (emergence)thought/unthought

discovery & recall oranamnesis (emergence of

enfolded knowledge)3L TOTALITY

ECformation, shaping feeling

or emotionshaping (binding knowledge

back into our innermost being -self formation - & elaborating it)

4D TRANSFORMATIVEAGENCY DCR making (physical action& objectification) objectifying knowledge inpractice

5A SPIRITUALITYTDCR

fulfilled or realised intentionality(reflection of objectification

to the maker) reflection or fulfilment

6R RE-ENCHANTMENTPMR enchanted resonanceof fulfilled intentionality

7A/Z NON-DUALITYPMR

awakening to the non-dual ground offulfilled intentionality

(self- & god-realisation) from M. Hartwigs Introduction to PMR


7/31

The Bipolarities of ABSENCE & EMERGENCEHumancreativityimplieschangetheemergenceofsomething new, fromAbsenceThe idea of change involves absence/absenting:(a) absentingsomething which was previously there, and/or(b) presenting something which was not there (hence, an

absenting of the absenceof what was not there) Hence, Absenceis conceptually essential for a rationalaccount of change.The idea of change as involving emergence is essential for arational account of learning education, growthdevelopment.


8/31

ONTOLOGICAL MONOVALENCE: the most fundamentalerror in western philosophy

the idea that a purely positive account of being is possible andnecessary

This embargo on conceptions of determinate absenceand change in philosophy generates TINAFORMATIONS(splits, dualisms, alienations andabsurdities) within philosophy, reflecting andunderpinning those within substantive social life.

PMR embracesABSENCEin virtue of the priority given tothe concepts of Transcendence, Co-Presence, etc.

Change in Critical Realism:Against Ontological Monovalence


9/31

The SUBJECT-PREDICATE DISTINCTIONvs. change, process,self-development, & creativity. Traditionally, in philosophy the subject is regarded as fixed. All

change is attributed to the predicate.

But NO CHANGE unless there are changes in subjects. Only aconception of change as internal necessary, and not merelyexternal & accidental, allows us to make sense of self-developmentand the notions of dialectical organic consistencychange,and the ideas ofself-transformation, self-becoming.The Critique of the Subject-Predicate Form, which is a Critique of

Analytical Reasoning, allows for a rational account of change.

Change in Critical Realism:Against the Subject-Predicate Distinction


10/31

5 CIRCLES OF CREATIONParallels with Human Act (including Learning)

1:CALLING orFOUNDATION

The immanent ground:the implicit, enfolded, potential

2:CREATION

The emergence/iruption of the new

through a transcendent cause

3:FORMATION orELABORATION

A binding and elaborationinto a new totality

4:MAKING or

OBJECTIFICATION Externalisation and manifestationof the agents intentionality5:

REFLECTION orFULFILLMENT Reflection of the agents intentionality


11/31

5 CIRCLES OF CREATION1: Calling or Foundation

The immanently prepared ground: the essentialingredient, the familiar, the raw material to be

transformed (material cause) Every new creation has an ontologically

immanent source. PLATONIC ANAMNESIS: What is eventually

createdthe newis already implicit,enfolded, potentialin the old. It is already(timelessly, embedded) there. (Co-Presence)


12/31


Learning is a process of recalling orrecollectionthe eliciting or surfacing ofwhat was implicit or potential in anenfolded state in the creator or the learner.

This first moment concernstheintentionand/or goal of the creator/learner: TheWILLin the human creative process


13/31


In LEARNING: No one can teach you anything thatyou do not already (implicitly) know. Educationisthe bringing out of the implicit and enfolded in you.

But the knowledge is unmanifest, and thus requireseducation, which involves an external stimulus/teacherfor the eliciting of what is already implicit orknown, in an unmanifest form.


14/31

5 CIRCLES OF CREATION2: Creation

The emergence of the new: de novo, ex nihilo(out of nothing) - from an epistemicallyunknown and optically unmanifest source(but ontologically immanent)

Through a transcendent cause (an externalstimulus or teacher), the efficient cause

What is created transcends and negateswhat pre-existed it. Creation is an absentingand transforming of what is already there.


15/31

Learning is a spontaneous giftbut a gift given to a speciallyprepared mindbecause the mind had toiled ardently, arduously,prepared itself exhaustively.

Newton had so thoroughly immersed himself in the subject matter

that in transcendental identity in consciousness (in a non-dualtranscendental moment), he apprehended gravity in a way onlypossible for him. In this sense, the transcendent cause falls on animmanently prepared ground.

TRANSCENDENTAL CAUSE(the gift of learning)

IMMANENT GROUND


16/31


The Primacy of Self Referentiality: The irreducibility of therole of the embodied personality in creativity.

The irruption of novelty happens in the moment ofunthought(a suspension of discursive thought, between/beyond/beneath thought): the epistemically unmanifested.

The discursive intellect includes not only the purely formalanalytical thought, but dialectical thoughtas well

But we need not only dialectical thought, but alsounthought. (a radical transcendentalisation of thedialectical critique of analytical reasoning)


17/31

TRANSCENDENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS:- the ground of the Discursive & Intuitive Intellect

- the supra mental state of consciousness linked to the ground-state- underpins THOUGHT: the source of INTUITION and guide for DISCURSIVE THOUGHT

formal & conscious activityinstrumental, manipulative

sequential & linearanalogical/metaphoric/metonymic*

spontaneous & tacit activityunconditional

simultaneousholistic

Dialectical* (vs. Analytic)ThoughtConcepts are stretched, teased and

distantiated, as in metaphor or poetry,so as to bring thought into line

with a new or deeper level of reality. conic*(vs. Sentential) Activity

Pictorial, imaginative, visualising thought

crucial in the retroductive-analogical momentin scientific discovery,

in which scientists picture plausible models.

DISCURSIVE INTELLECT(LEFT BRAIN)

INTUITIVE INTELLECT(RIGHT BRAIN)

The intellect is our faculty of discrimination & choice. Both the Discursive Intellect &Intuitive Intellect are necessary and need to be synthesised.


18/31

Thinking, judging, naming1. impedes or blocks creativity, love and right-action; 2. consumes and drains energy; and3. sets up repetitive and manipulative patterns andsyndromes of thinking, feeling and acting. Nothing creative comes from thought. Creativity

always comes from the gap, the space between

thought (when we stop thinking).THOUGHT UNTHOUGHTin the human creativeprocess

Limits of Thought


19/31


The need for passivity, receptivity, and opennesstothe irruption of the new, which at this point may beknowledge or information that is initially

heteronomous, externally given, second-hand. The SELF-REFERENTIALITY of LEARNING, the direct

and non-substitutable Eureka experience of discovery(I see it, I get it). No one else can make you see or

understand or learn.

The wise man, the fool, and the moon: The wise mancan point to the moon, but the fool needs to see themoon for himselfbeyond the finger of the wise man.


20/31

5 CIRCLES OF CREATION3: Formation or Elaboration

A binding & shaping into a new Totality (formal cause) Elaboration of the discovery/invention & appropriation so

that it becomes part of ones selfowned & claimed as

ones own creation or knowledge/understanding. The

elaboration of the discovery leads to the self-formation ofthe subject

VALUES FEELINGSin the human creative process In Learning: The student assimilates the new knowledge

& makes it his/her own, learning its implications &

applications. Meaning-making


21/31

5 CIRCLES OF CREATION3: Formation or Elaboration

Double Initiation:Although your new knowledge has beenelicited from within you, it remains unfamiliar to your

conscious mind, & requires it to be in-grown or in-built until

you attain a level of spontaneous knowledge &

application. The end of this process of double-initiation isone in which you have all the knowledge and skills at your

disposal;

You already know it implicitly but need to know it again bymaking the knowledge part of your being. At the level of

the first initiation (the recall of Platonic anamnesis), you

just see it. On this level of second initiation, you internalise

it and incorporate it into your being.


22/31


23/31

5 CIRCLES OF CREATION4: Making or Objectification

We think being not only in itself, not only as a processand a totality, but also as incorporating or involving

transformative praxisi.e., creative work. MAKING or AGENCYin the human creative process In LEARNING, the student, having incorporated the

learning as his/her own, now uses it and through anapplicationof his learning, expresses it in a product ora performance.


24/31

5 CIRCLES OF CREATION5: Reflection or Fulfillment

The objectified product stands on its own & reflects(or failS toreflect) back the intentionality& attributes of the creator.

FULFILLED INTENTIONALITYin the human creative process The agent (creator or student) grows in self-awareness

understanding through this objectification/act of onesintentionality.

The Unity of Theory Practice: the re-ascent of consciousnessto spirit, having emerged in human form from matter, reflexively

(reflectingly) looks back on the creator (god).


25/31

Phase 1: NO MIND(CREATION) - Openness & receptivityrequired for the I SEE IT experience of discovery &

recognition. Unthought in CREATION.Phase 2: MINDFULNESS(FORMATION or ELABORATION)- PLAY WITH IT'. Playful & disciplined experimentation with

the subject matter or skill.Phase 3: FREE MIND(OBJECTIFICATION) - Making thingsthrough the application of the knowledge in differentsituations. But also NO MIND (a state of being

characterised by no thought or unthought, in which we

unthink our way through life).

3 Phases of Knowledge


26/31

The Goal of Education The recognition of each persons uniqueness is a

precondition for any pedagogy: Uniqueness as thematised

around the concepts of CONCRETE SINGULARITYDIALECTICAL UNIVERSALITY

The DIALECTICAL PROCESS OF LEARNING: The intuitiveseeing it becomes part of a process in which the

knowledge, still heteronomous, becomes part of thestudents being. Through the full development of the process

of creativity they become empowered skilled agentsin theworld.

The goal of education is to encourage human beings tocome into their dharma (our concretely singularised innernature increasingly free of the attachments).


27/31

3 Levels of Action Level 1: Giftfrom the universe & offeringto the divine or to nature,

to fellow human beings,whatever it is that we love. Level 2: Transformationof the worldLevel 3: Struggle: the practice of emancipation

The Goal of Education


28/31

The Goal of Education* Practical Mysticism: the link between Deep Spirituality and

Social Change*

Dialectic between education and emancipation:My SelfRealisationis achieved by the removal of heteronomies

(blocks to my freedom,), but my freedomwill not be attained

only unless everyone else achieves self-realisationi.e., the

removal of the blocks to the freedom of allhence, Universal

Self Realisation.* To be a spiritual being.., you have to be a practical being.


29/31

When we learn something, we build the new

knowledge or skill into our unity.

In the process of incorporating what is external to us,we remain whole, and we embedrecursively embedthe new development into ourselves and in this

manner, expand.

We can be non-dual and growing beings at the sametime. Transcendental unity is consistent with

differentiated wholes and development.

Learning as Re-Totalisation of the Self


30/31

ABSENCE/ INCONSISTENCIES/INCOMPLETENESS CONTRADICTIONS

NEW CONCEPTout of a moment of UNTHOUGHT(Epistemically Unmanifest or Absence)

GREATER TOTALITY(Re-Totalisation)

It is determinate absencesthat initiate and remedy theprocess of learningor any development for that matter.

Learning as Re-Totalisation of the Self


31/31

SummaryCreativity & learning consists of an emergencefrom absence, e novo,from the unmanifest, the merely implicit, enfolded, potential.In the human world, this moment of creation or emergence is(a) UNTHOUGHT(beyond discursive thought); (b) involves the breakdown or occurs outside the context of SUBJECT-OBJECT DUALITY DUALISMas such;(c) depends upon a moment of PLATONIC ANAMNESIS(a moment ofrecall/recollection): the eliciting of the implicit or potential in an enfoldedstate in the creator/learner, as assisted by an external stimulus or

teacher; but(d) depends upon the irreducibility of I see it!, I get it!i.e., the

PRIMACY OF SELF-REFERENTIALITY.

creativity & learning

Documents