-
Jan 1, 1000
The book of Genesis in the Bible., The Earliest Western conception of creativity.
The earliest Western concept of creativity was the Biblical story of creation given in Genesis, from which followed the idea of the artisan doing God's work on earth. "For man's awareness of his capacity to create, the Covenant was a landmark. It declared that a people become a community through their belief in a Creator and His Creation." (The Bible). -
Jan 1, 1000
Confucius (c. 551-479 BC)
Creation was at most a kind of discovery or mimicry. Apparently the early Buddhists emphasized natural cycles, and thus "the idea of the creation of something ex nihilo (from nothing) had no place in the universe of the yin and yang" (Boorstin, 1992, p. 17) -
Jan 1, 1393
Chaucer 1393
Even though Chaucer used the word "create" as early as 1393, the conceptual outline of creativity remained relatively faint and even at times was lost sight of until most of the major philosophers (e.g. Hobbes [1588-1679] and Locke [1632-1704]. (Runco & Albert, 2010., p. 6) -
Period: Feb 19, 1473 to
Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo (1564-1642), and Newton (1642-1727)
Three of the Western world's greatest scientists gave proof that scientific works were known for their power of discovery and cultural and religious disruption. (Runco & Albert, 2010, p. 6) -
The end of the Eighteenth Century
"By the end of the eighteenth century it was concluded that although many persons may have talent of one sort or another, and that this talent would be responsive to education, "original genius" was truly exceptional and by definition was to be exempt from the rules, the customs, and the obligations that applied to the talented." (
