Negation as a source of a creative act

Philosophy

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to determine the specificity and role of the category of negation in the context of the problem of creativity. In the article, the category of negation is put into a concrete form within the historical-philosophical discourse for further analysis under ontological paradigms proposed by different philosophers. The article identifies two traditions of interpretation, with the criterion for distinguishing between them lying in different understanding of the specificity of negation. The tradition oriented toward positive ontology (the line of Parmenides) devalues this category. The alternative approach, associated with the reception of Hegel, on the contrary, rehabilitates negation, making it an integral component of ontology and expanding its understanding. It is this second approach that allows us to identify and appreciate the potential of negation. In specifying the role of negation within a creative act, the forms with which negation was correlated in the first tradition are preserved, but they no longer exhaust the manifestation of negation. It is on the basis of this consideration that we overcome the meaninglessness of the negative approach that has become solidified in philosophy and identify a productive angle for considering negation, the forms of which we subsequently adapt to the first stage of a creative act: the generation of an idea in imagination. This allows us to identify an ontological basis of creativity that incorporates nothingness. This correlation also reveals the psychological side of negation, which becomes an integral component of a creative act. The theoretical significance of the article lies in a renewed vision of the issues of creativity via the inclusion of the category of negation into the conceptualization of creativity, this contributing to a comprehensive consideration of a creative act. The research perspective chosen by the author corresponds to modern trends in philosophy that are oriented toward the search for and rethinking of negative foundations of any phenomena.