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Creativity in Science

Creativity in Science

Creativity in Science

Chance, Logic, Genius, and Zeitgeist
Dean Keith Simonton , University of California, Davis
May 2004
Available
Paperback
9780521543699
$43.00
USD
Paperback
USD
Hardback

    Where do major scientific breakthroughs come from? Do they arise from the logic of the scientific method, or do they result from flashes of genius? Are they the products of some mysterious zeitgeist, or spirit of the times, or do they emerge from chance or serendipity? Dean Simonton provides an answer, not by choosing one explanation and ignoring the others, but rather by unifying all four perspectives into a single theory in which chance plays the primary role, but with the significant involvement of logic, genius and zeitgeist.

    • Provides a comprehensive predictive and explanatory model of scientific creativity
    • Integrates the four major perspectives on the phenomenon: change, logic, genius, and zeitgeist
    • Synthesizes the research on scientific creativity from all theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary orientations

    Reviews & endorsements

    "This engaging and insightful book explores the four candidates that traditionally have been suggested to explain creativity in science. Recommended."
    -R.M. Davis, Albion College, CHOICE

    "Simonton is a very clear writer, and the empirical support he marshals is impressive. Although the book begins with an advisement of mathematical formulae to be used, Simonton does not bog the reader down with equations. Instead, he affirms the superiority of the change approach as an overarching explanation to scientific creativity with a thorough account of how the causal predictions based on the logic, genius, and zeitgeist perspectives ultimately contradict available data."
    -Christopher H. Ramey, Department of Psychology, Florida Southern College, Philosophical Psychology

    See more reviews

    Product details

    May 2004
    Paperback
    9780521543699
    234 pages
    227 × 151 × 17 mm
    0.33kg
    11 b/w illus. 3 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Preface
    • 1. Introduction: scientific creativity
    • 2. Creative products
    • 3. Combinatorial processes
    • 4. Scientific activity
    • 5. Creative scientists
    • 6. Scientific discovery
    • 7. Consolidation: creativity in science
    • References
    • Index.
      Author
    • Dean Keith Simonton , University of California, Davis

      Dean Keith Simonton is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of nine books, including Genius, Creativity, and Leadership (1984), Scientific Genius (Cambridge 1988), Psychology, Science, and History (1990), Greatness (1994), Origins of Genius (1999) and Great Psychologists and their Times (2002).