Creativity and thinking: Categorical characteristics

In the introduction part of the article, the authors give a proof of the issue's topicality, defines the aim and formulates the problem of the research. During the preparation of this article, methods of analyzing and synthesizing information from open sources, including articles of the national and foreign experts in the field of philosophy of creativity and methodology of thinking, were used. To determine the relationship between creativity and thinking, and to substantiate a philosophical understanding of thinking, the result of which is a unique product necessary for society, the authors give a categorical characteristic of thinking and denotes its ontological principles. Solving a problem is a thinking process. Consequently, the study of problem solving processes largely coincides with the study of mental processes. The essence of mental activity is to reflect the essential properties and relationships of things. The authors do not deal with numerous and diverse studies of such entities as reasoning, which is not always the essence of problem solving, as well as rational dispute. Problem solving involves thinking as a practical activity aimed at achieving specific goals set within the framework of a problem situation. Actual thinking is like an ideal world, a "private form" of thinking, subject to the laws of logic, and expressed in symbols (charts, tables, graphs, etc.). In the main part of the article, the authors reveal the relationship of thinking and creativity in the process of solving problems through such categories of thinking as process and structure. Thinking as a process is ontologically characterized in the context of an act of communication and in the context of activity. From the position of communication, thinking acts as an operational objective selection or creation of content and its expression (or fixation) in the simultaneously and parallelly created sign form of the text. Thinking in the communicative aspect is focused on the creation of ideal entities through language and symbols. The authors consider thinking as a process in terms of activity in the context of problem solving. Such mental activity is formed on the basis of practical, objective activity. Thinking, which results in a creative product, involves the reflection of the diverse properties of objects. This is confirmed by the abundance of "big ideas" at the generation stage. Particular emphasis in studies of thinking as an activity is made on the processes of substitution. As for the process itself, the formation of a communication idea, or a "big idea", is carried out in several stages: focusing, processing, selection and evaluation. The fundamental difference of the thinking process, as a result of which new unique products are created, is that, at the first stage, the focus is not so much on the object (context, assessment of current barriers), but on the person's attitude to the object (functional and semantic load). Moreover, at this stage, abstract ideas are formulated rather than objective ones. When problem situations arise that require resolution, a certain pattern of mental actions is built, as a rule. Namely, it is necessary to get answers to the questions of how these situations are realized as "task-oriented", and which means and systems of co-activities ensure the transfer of means and the whole experience of solving problems to new situations. How, in fact, can the transition from an abstract and conceptual representation of the whole to an objective one go given that it is generally during this period of transition that the above-mentioned shift occurs, and the connection between abstract and objective thinking becomes elusive? According to the author, reflection becomes such a connecting element. On the one hand, reflection is associated with abstract thinking. On the other hand, by organizing our space and time, by defining the structure of our vital activity, reflection is extremely concrete and directed to the objective world. The meanings of the ideal world exist eternally and are not subject to change, they are a kind of ideal categories, whereas meanings of the objective world are meanings of a physical reality, with their own physical laws, time and space. In turn, transition between the practical activity of thinking and the field of ideal thinking is possible, because thanks to this a new idea is formed. On the one hand, there are provocations and paradoxes, modeling the situation and going beyond. On the other hand, there are barriers, norms, regulations. The result is an opportunity to get a new unique product. The qualitative characteristics of thinking are complemented by elements of creativity, which are revealed at the level of the expansion of cultural senses and their focus, analysis, generation and filtering in the field of objective and ideal activity. The phenomenon of creativity is closely intertwined with the concept of reflection in a broad sense as the ability of natural thinking, especially in the transition from objective to abstract thinking. From the position of structure, the relationship of thinking and creativity is determined based on the types of problem solving and depends on the subjective abilities of individuals, their knowledge and skills, which lead to the emergence of a new composition of activities, and, in our case, to a new unique product corresponding to the spirit of the times. At the end of the article, the authors summarize the findings and makes conclusions.

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