[News] “Creativity and Ontology” Workshop – 23–24 October, Erika-Weinzierl-Saal

The workshop “Creativity and Ontology” will be held on 23–24 October in the Erika-Weinzierl-Saal. Workshop description: The workshop explores how creativity across various domains (e.g., thinking, art, science, etc.) raises ontological questions or even suggests specific ontologies. On one hand, contemporary cognitive sciences have made efforts to demonstrate that creativity—despite its apparent opposition to algorithmic, process-driven thinking—can be reconciled with traditional metaphysical realism and the correspondence theory of truth. On the other hand, the phenomenon of creativity has been a significant factor in challenging the notion of an a priori, pre-determined world structure—a paradigm often referred to as "classical ontology" and commonly traced back to Ancient Greek philosophy, such as Plato’s theory of Ideas. A number of influential thinkers have pointed to the need for a new ontology that accounts for creativity, including Thomas Kuhn, Friedrich Nietzsche, Nelson Goodman, Martin Heidegger, Henri Bergson, and Gilles Deleuze, to name just a few. This workshop provides a platform to discuss the role of creativity in various philosophical and scientific domains and to examine whether the ontologies assumed in these fields require revision in light of creativity—or whether they already offer a sufficient framework to accommodate it. It also challenges the widely held contemporary assumption that classical, "ancient" ontologies are inherently opposed to the creativity-driven demands of modern critiques of metaphysical realism. Program and flyer attached. Best wishes, Erik Kuravsky