Creativity

Picture by Canva AI

155 Creativity of existence

This article goes deep. If it appears to be gobbledygook, read it again. It contains an ontology that links godhood (power to create) with fundamental existence.

Being

Plato suggests the proposition that unique individual existence of a person is neither created nor destroyed. This can be compared to the teaching of physics that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only changed from one form to another. Being eternal (never having been created), I exist independent of any other existence.

Time

Presumably, an external setting or environment surrounding the person is also eternal, providing space for change we variously call progression, development, emergence, result, growth, life. Change occurs over time, which is another element, dimension, or characteristic of existence.

Environment

The physical world and teachings of other human beings are the immediate vehicles of passage through time. Mere existence does not constitute growth. There must also be an environment capable of change. The ability to observe changes enables sentience, the awareness of self as distinct from random background noise.

Meaning

Without "other" existences external to mine, the existence I experience internally might have no meaning at all. Meaning requires difference, such as "being" which is distinct from "non-being." Meaning arises through differentiation and exists at a unique point in the context of all other existences.

Although my being is the reality that is subjectively most intimate to me, objectively there is nothing more important about my reality than about the reality of anything else. Cosmological setting is as important as self. Expressed colloquially, this says that happiness consisting only of me is empty to the point of being nonexistent. There is a universe that gives my existence place and meaning.

Context

In this setting, I conclude that teachers and role models are essential to my growth. Although I exist in principle, that existence is manifest in practice when it is placed in context of other existences. Jesus, the Buddha, Socrates, and the other role models are to be taken seriously so that I can learn essential lessons and assume meaning. However, this principle does not establish that my identity depends on teachers. They are tools, not causes.

The Form of the Good

Presently I favor the Platonist tool compatible with secular ethical humanism. Having proposed that observation, perhaps I am one of the available tools.

Condition

Being a tool does not make me a cause. I have posited that godhood is creative power. I cannot create other entities, which I have just stated cannot be created or destroyed. Instead, creativity lies in applying tools to existing elements. The created product is not existence; it is art.

This concept comports with a description of artistic creativity. The composer does not cause the condition that certain combinations of vibrations comprise meaningful music. Rather, the composer applies a principle to create something of great value. Without creating the light itself, the sculptor produces a result that illumination reveals to be art.

Creation

Therefore, developing godhood is finding a place in the cosmos of existences and applying understanding in a productive way that we call creativity.

☚ previous
next ☛

Subscribe
Books
Give

We learn best by discussion!
Please add your thoughts here for me to append to the article.
Moderated--no need to log in

Approved items may be displayed here and elsewhere by Kent Busse d.b.a. Ernstraud Magazine. They will be attributed to your pen name. Your email address will not be published or shared.