You Think, Therefore You Create

by Karen Daniels

Often people view creativity as the production of something physical when before there was “nothing.” But creativity is more than that. It’s also about the way you think, your ideas, how your approach your life. Certainly when it comes to creativity sometimes there is a physical end product – a blog article, a book, an invention, etc. But if you react to a life situation in a different way, a new way that you’ve never done before, you’re being creative. When you have a conversation with someone that is not scripted, you are creating (the sentences) – you are being creative.

Creativity is BIG and it’s everywhere, all the time.

To expand the way we all think about creativity, here’s a list of ideas that Changed the World, (from TIME, 100 Ideas that Changed the World). I’ve specifically selected ideas that had no physical “product” but were so revolutionary that they still impact us today. Think about what the world would be like, if these ideas had never been put forth.

Ideas that Changed the World

The Ancient World

• Prehistoric man imagines a world inhabited by spirits
• There is only one God
• Geometry – the idea of ideal forms existing outside the physical world
• Mankind envisions life after death
• The week gets 7 days (ancient Egyptians had a 10 day week)
• People learn to rule themselves (rather than kings etc.)
• Buddhism and enlightenment
• Law of cause and effect
• World composed of atoms
• Socrates and the pursuit of truth (btw, he never produced a single book)
• Aristotle and deductive logic
• Skeptics – if it possible to know anything with certainty?
• Christianity

The Middle Ages

• Free will
• Muhammad’s teachings, Islam
• Mathematicians and the power of 0
• Writ of habeas corpus – must show why a prisoner’s liberty is being denied
• Verdicts should be settled by panel of fellow citizens
• Mysticism, a direct route to God

The Renaissance

• Humanism makes man “the measure of all things”
• Humans aspire to an ideal world, utopia
• Copernicus, the Earth revolves around the sun

The Age of Enlightenment

• The scientific method
• Francis Bacon, inductive reasoning
• A king’s powers derive from God
• Descartes, “I think, therefore I am.”
• Newton, rules of the physical universe
• Vico’s theory of knowledge, that it comes from sense experience and beliefs
• Rousseau, man is corrupted by civilization
• Capitalism
• Burke, the idea of conservatism
• Mary Wollstonecraft, womens’ rights
• All men are created equal
• Separation of church and state
• Utilitarians, the greatest happiness for all

Modern Times

• Transcendentalism
• Anarchism
• Marxism
• Nationalism
• Abolitionism
• Genetics
• Evolution
• Theory of relativity
• The big bang
• Atheism
• Chaos theory
• Behaviorism
• Extraterrestrial life
• Animal rights

As you approach your day today, or tomorrow, give yourself credit with the creative way you think, initiate or respond to a conversation, your weekly ahas!, or as you contemplate your theory of xyz that just might change the world – and all of us in it.

photo by cheerfulmonk

Tagged as: creative, creative people, creative thought, creativity, history