Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
HISTORY
Creativity studies in Poland are deeply rooted in philosophical inquiries. One particularly influential work was authored by Władysław Tatarkiewicz (1976). In his brilliant analysis, the author detailed the historical and cultural development of creativity. Creativity was originally conceived as a divine activity, inaccessible for humans, who at most could aspire to skills, mastery, and craftsmanship. During the age of romanticism, creativity developed into the notion of inspired activity that cannot be understood or accounted for in terms of natural forces and mechanisms. Only in the twentieth century did creativity obtain its more naturalistic meaning as a human activity that results in a new, original work. Interestingly, Tatarkiewicz did not confine his criteria of creativity to sheer novelty, even if matched with other criteria, such as value or social impact. His definition of creativity clearly emphasizes the importance of human effort and energy used for the creation of pieces of art and other artifacts. Mental energy and effort employed in the process of creation appear to be as essential as novelty or originality of the output. In this way, Tatarkiewicz anticipated the modern psychological conceptions of “potential creativity” (Runco & Charles, 1997).
An important predecessor of modern creativity studies in psychology and education was Stefan Szuman (1927). He analyzed the phenomenon of play, particularly children's drawings, as a naturally creative activity.
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