Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, solution, artwork, literary work, joke, etc.) that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs. What counts as "valuable" is similarly defined in a variety of ways.
Scholarly interest in creativity ranges widely: Topics to which it is relevant include the relationship between creativity and general intelligence; the mental and neurological processes associated with creative activity; the relationship between personality type and creative ability; the relationship between creativity and mental health; the potential for fostering creativity through education and training, especially as augmented by technology; and the application of an individual's existing creative resources to improve the effectiveness of learning processes and of the teaching processes tailored to them.
Creativity and creative acts are therefore studied across several disciplines - psychology, cognitive science, education, philosophy (particularly philosophy of science), technology, theology, sociology, linguistics, business studies, and economics. As a result, there are a multitude of definitions and approaches.
David Kelley (born June 23, 1949 in Shaker Heights, Ohio) is an American philosopher, author, and advocate of Objectivism. He is founder and senior fellow of The Atlas Society. He lives in Washington, D.C..
Kelley is trained as a philosopher. He received his BA and MA in philosophy from Brown University, where he studied with the American rationalist, Roderick Chisholm. He received his Ph.D. in 1975 from Princeton University, where his advisor was the American postmodernist Richard Rorty. He was an assistant professor of philosophy and cognitive science for 7 years at Vassar College. He then taught logic for a brief time at Brandeis University, while working as a freelance writer for Barron's Magazine and other publications.
A member of her circle, David Kelley read Ayn Rand's favorite poem, "If—", by Rudyard Kipling, at her funeral in 1982.
Leonard Peikoff's Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) declared Objectivism to be a "closed system" containing only the philosophic principles advocated by Rand herself.
Elizabeth M. Gilbert (born July 18, 1969) is an American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer, novelist and memoirist. She is best known for her 2006 memoirs, Eat, Pray, Love, which as of December 2010, has spent 199 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, and was also made into a film by the same name in 2010.
Gilbert was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. Her father was a chemical engineer, her mother a nurse. Along with her only sister, novelist and historian Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Gilbert grew up on a small family Christmas tree farm in Litchfield, Connecticut. The family lived in the country with no neighbors, and they didn’t own a TV or even a record player. Consequently, they all read a great deal, and Gilbert and her sister entertained themselves by writing little books and plays.
Gilbert earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from New York University in 1991, after which she worked as cook, a waitress, and a magazine employee. She wrote of her experience as a cook on a dude ranch in short stories, and also briefly in her book The Last American Man (Viking 2002).
Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Her topics of study include vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame. Her work has been featured on PBS, NPR, TED and CNN.
Brown’s current research focuses on authentic leadership and wholeheartedness in families, schools, and organizations and has been the and the subject of a TED talk (2012) and two 2010 TEDx talks (2010)
Brown is the author of I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t): Telling the Truth About Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power (Penguin/Gotham, 2007), The Gifts of Imperfection: Letting Go of Who We Think We Should Be and Embracing Who We Are (Hazelden, 2010) and Wholehearted: Spiritual Adventures in Falling Apart, Growing Up, and Finding Joy (Hazelden, 2011). She is also the author of Connections, a psychoeducational shame resilience curriculum. Her articles have appeared in many national newspapers.
Houston Women's Magazine voted her one of the most influential women of 2009.
Chase Jarvis is an American professional photographer, director, artist, and entrepreneur.
Jarvis was born in Seattle, Washington. His father was a Seattle Police Department officer, and his mother was an administrator at a biotech company. He attended San Diego State University on a soccer scholarship, receiving a B.A. in Philosophy.
Initially, Jarvis planned to attend medical school after university. A few weeks before graduating, Jarvis’s grandfather died and left all his photography equipment to his grandson. Jarvis subsequently went on a post-college trip through Europe and discovered his passion for photography. He is self-taught, and has learned photography through experimenting and independent study.
In 1994, Jarvis moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado with his girlfriend, where he began shooting photos of pro snowboarders and skiers. Jarvis licensed his first image for $500 and a pair of skis. Realizing that photography was more lucrative and fulfilling than waiting tables, Jarvis continued to pursue photography while studying Philosophy and Art at the University of Washington’s MA/PhD program. One quarter before completing his Master’s degree, Jarvis licensed a batch of his photos to REI that allowed him to leave academia and open his own studio, Chase Jarvis Photography.