The Holistic Individual and the Sources of CreativityPekka Pihlanto

Professor EmeritusTurku School of Economics, Business and Innovation Development

To be presented atThe Symposium in Honour of Adjunct Professor Kaj U. Koskinen University Consortium of Pori,Tampere University of Technology , Pori 10.9.2010

1.9.2010

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Importance of creativity

Creativity is considered to be one of the most important factors in the development of societies today.

Creativity is required not only from universities and research institutes.

In addition, the great relevance of creativity for the results of work should be understood at all other workplaces as well.

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Manuscript for flourishing

The Government of Finland has become aware of the problem.

It presented an assignment to assess the outlook of Finland’s development for the 2010s to philosopher Pekka Himanen.

Himanen published the ”Manuscript for Flourishing” (”Kukoistuksen käsikirjoitus”).

He reflects on how Finland could be opened for flourishing with the help of increased creativity.

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Creativity and the Holistic Concept of Man On the basis of Himanen’s book, I outline the

human conditions of creativity and creative cultures.

I introduce the human aspect through the aid of the Holistic Concept of Man (HCM), developed by philosopher Lauri Rauhala.

According to HCM, a human being consists of three modes of existence: 1) consciousness (”thinking”), 2) situationality (relationships to reality) and 3) corporeality (the ”body”).

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The conditions of creativity and consciousness All mental human action, including creative work,

is based on an individual’s consciousness. In consciousness, an individual experiences and

understands the phenomena of life. This is realised through meanings, which the

consciousness produces continuously.

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The birth of a meaning and world-view On the basis of an observation, the conscious-

ness forms an ”embryo” of a meaning... ...which is then related to a similar kind of

meaning(s) located in the world-view – a ”store” of earlier experiences (cf. ”memory”).

As a result, a new meaning arises, and the individual understands the observation. The new meaning is accumulated into the world-view.

In this way, the intellectual life of an individual is realised – in the form of almost endless process of production of new meanings.

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It is individual and subjective

All new meanings and the accumulated stock of old meanings – the world-view – are of a highly personal nature and are subjective.

As such, people are usually of different opinions, even about the same question: they subjectively make interpretations in their personal way.

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Face-to-face contacts are needed…

Being familiar with the way meanings are formed in consciousness, it is possible to understand and analyse the individual level conditions of creativity.

However, a creative individual cannot give the best in isolation from other people.

According to Himanen, in order to flourish a creative culture requires face-to-face contacts which make enriching interaction possible.

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… therefore situationality is essential Therefore, we need – in addition to

consciousness and corporeality – the third mode of existence, i.e. situationality, which connects an individual to his/her ”environ-ment” or situation.

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The relevance of an individual’s situation for creativity Situationality is the totality of all relationships an

individual has with objects located in his/her ”environment” or situation.

An individual has relationships with objects and things – nature, other people, human-made artefacts, concrete and abstract, etc.

These relationships (= situationality) are important, as they affect consciousness and corporeality in a multitude of ways.

In fact, a human being is also made up of situationality – not just consciousness and corporeality.

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”No one is outside of a local situation”

For instance, face-to-face contacts with other people and the physical venues of these contacts, as well as the information exchanged, are parts of the individual’s situationality.

It is therefore easy to understand the importance of an individual’s situationality for creative culture.

As Randall Collins aptly says: ”No one has ever been outside of a local situation” (Himanen).

…or ”…his/her own individual situation and situationality” (HCM).

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Enriching interaction

Many kinds of meanings are processed during an interaction in the consciousness of every person, such as emotions, facts and beliefs, etc.

All these are stored in the world-view and further refined therein into, for instance, creative ideas.

These individual results are further transferred to other parties and back again, and so on.

In this way, enriching interaction is realised, which Himanen considers an important condition of creativity.

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Situation <---> Body <---> Consciousness

Creative work is thus realised: 1) in the mutual interaction of the three modes of

existence of each person participating in the interaction, s1<---> b1 <--->c1.

2) in terms of the situationalities of participants, linking their consciousnesses together:

c1<---> s1s2 <--->c2. The relevance of corporeality: it enables

physical presence and realises personal face-to-face communication.

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Every individual is unique – this also means problems Everybody’s world-view, situationality and

corporeality are unique creative individuals invent quite unique solutions…

…which they further refine in enriching interaction with other people.

In terms of HCM, it is possible to problematise the role of an individual in the creative process by showing personal problem areas which may prevent creativity and even block the formation of creative centers.

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Sources of problems in creativity

Individual related problems may arise in any one of the three modes of existence and their interplay.

1) Forming creative ideas in consciousness may be difficult (e.g. preventive meanings in the world-view).

2) Problems in situationality which prevent creativity (narrow situationality, unfavourable relationships, etc.).

3) Problems in corporeality (health problems, etc.).

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Understanding the problems

Therefore, recognising and eliminating the problems (those that can be eliminated) in personal consciousness, situationality and corporeality may be facilitated when the basic mechanisms of the human actor’s creative activity can be understood by the aid of HCM.

At the same time, however, one should be careful not to repress unique individual creativity.

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Introducing new learning and working cultures Introducing new creativity-oriented learning and

working cultures examined by Himanen may also benefit from the increased understanding about an individual offered by HCM.

According to Himanen, the cornerstones of both cultures are: 1) trust, 2) community of enrichment and 3) creativity.

The individual level prerequisities for creativity and enriching interaction were discussed above.

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The feeling of trust according to HCM Trust is a feeling experienced by an individual.

An individual experiencing trust feels that s/he can rely on people and the organisation s/he is in cooperation with.

The feeling of trust is formed: 1) on the basis of observations, which arise from a person’s situation, and 2) from the interpretations of these observations in relation to the relevant content of this person’s world-view (this process is dealt with above).

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A challenge for teacher and superior

Trust doesn’t usually build up easily and without problems.

Every individual experiences trust (or the lack of it) in an individual and unique way.

Building a trusting atmosphere is a challenge for both teacher and superior.

They have to consider – to the degree possible – the individual features of every pupil/subord-inate, and customise their trust-building tasks correspondingly.

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Creative passion in learning

An important prerequisite for learning is creative passion, which a teacher should help the pupil to find in him- or herself (Himanen).

In terms of HCM, creative passion is an emotionally accentuated meaning structure in a pupil’s world-view.

The teacher’s role is that of a catalyser – s/he does not pour knowledge into the pupil but rather makes the active need or passion for learning arise in the pupil’s consciousness.

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Creative passion - at the workplace as well

Similarly, at the workplace the superior should ensure that the subordinate is ignited with creative passion.

If this succeeds, the subordinate will experience the work as interesting and meaningful.

Understanding that trust and creative passion are meanings of an emotional nature helps the teacher and superior in their pursuit to foster these feelings in individuals.

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Aiming at general, common meanings One of the aims of the ”Manuscript for

Flourishing” is to generate certain types of meanings for citizens which help them gain the experience of a meaningful life.

These meanings seem general by nature, and are meant to be adopted by as many citizens as possible at the same time and in the same form.

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From general to personal meanings

From the HCM point of view: 1) the ultimate aim of these general meanings is to implant corresponding personal, individual meanings into as many citizens’ world-views as possible.

2) these general meanings do not move into an individual’s world-view in an identical form for everyone and without problems.

Instead, all the above-described complications are possible and influence how each individual accepts them – or does not accept them at all.

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Decision-makers in a key role To realise Himanen’s manuscript, it is not

enough to only concentrate on how ordinary people – pupils, subordinates and other citizens – adopt the ideas it proposes.

In addition to this, a sufficient number of public and private decision-makers should first adopt these ideas as a self-evident part of their own world-view before the ideas can spread more widely into society.

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Decision-makers also have problems

This process of adopting ideas may also lead to an encounter with all the above problems possibly caused by consciousness, situationality and corporeality, which can inhibit such adoption.

Nobody can act in favour of an ideology or aim unless s/he has genuinely adopted it from his/her situationality into the world-view.

In the above way, we suggest HCM as an aid for this adoption process.

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Finally: ”I Have a Dream”

The time period required for rooting these ideas in society is difficult to estimate, as human nature imposes its own restrictions on absorbing new ideas.

Himanen’s vision and strategy are, however, highly noteworthy as long-term milestones for change – to some degree similar to Martin Luther King’s immortal exclamation cited by Himanen: ”I have a dream”.

This dream was only realised little-by-little and slowly – but surely even so.

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References

Collins, Randall (1998) The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Collins, Randall (2004) Intellectual Ritual Chains. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Himanen, Pekka (2010) Kukoistuksen käsikirjoitus (”Manuscript for Flourishing”). Jyväskylä: WSOY.

Koskinen, Kaj U. & Pihlanto, Pekka (2009) Knowledge Sharing in Different Project Work Environments Analysed by the Holistic Concept of Man. International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies. Vol 3, Nos. 3/4, 2009. 209-221.

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References

Koskinen, Kaj U. & Pihlanto, Pekka (2008) Knowledge Management in Project-Based Companies: An Organic Perspective. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Pihlanto, Pekka (2003) The Role of the Individual Actor in Different Accounting Research Perspectives. The Holistic Individual Image as a Tool for Analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Management, Vol. 19, No: 2, 153-172.

Rauhala, Lauri (1986) Ihmiskäsitys ihmistyössä ("The Conception of the Human Being in Helping People"). Third printing. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.

Rauhala, Lauri (1995) Tajunnan itsepuolustus ("The Self-Defense of Consciousness"). Helsinki: Yliopistopaino.