The value of creativity

This chapter argues that creativity is an agential disposition involving the exercise of relevant reasons-sensitivity and appropriate knowledge of how to produce things that are new and valuable of their kind. It shows the entails that all creative activities have a spontaneous aspect to them. The value of creativity is a conditional one, that is, whether it is valuable depends on the circumstances; this is because creative products are not valuable simpliciter. The chapter discusses the value of creative agency and creativity as a kind of agency. It examines whether and how each added component, either on its own or in interaction with other components of the definition, conditions whether creativity has value and if so what sort of value it has. The chapter discusses whether the value of the creative disposition is instrumental or intrinsic. Human creativity has produced innumerable good things, including great works of art, wonderful technology and extraordinary scientific discoveries.