Reflection and the Nature of Creativity

In the introduction part of the article, the authors prove the topicality of the issue, set the aim and formulate the problem of the research. According to the research in the field of the methodology and theory of thinking, a special place here is given to reflexive activity associated with the reflection of the main ways of life and human existence. The questions of reflection are studied in various subject areas. Today, some of the results of these studies are used from the perspective of the competencebased approach implemented in the modern education system. If conditions for a continuous improvement of education are observed, the determination of the philosophical and methodological foundations of the relationship between reflection and creativity becomes relevant, which makes it possible to expand the scope of ideas about the results of the educational process formed in the Russian science and outline the best ways for a successful modernization of education. The main thesis that the authors formulate is that the nature of creativity from the perspective of thinking stems from the specifics of the mechanisms of reflection. The authors determine the interrelation of reflection and creativity through the tradition of reflexive analysis of consciousness which clarifies ideal meanings and is associated with the construction of ideal objects and through the tradition of understanding which clarifies meanings that manifest themselves in communication. Important is the fact that in the tradition of reflection, along with the objective interpretation of thinking and the study of thinking as oneself, attention focuses on the meaningful activity of consciousness. This activity is fixed in the formation and identification of ideal images and meanings related to categories of mind. Creativity is dependent on how the world is perceived, on the knowledge of ideal images in any field which are formed through reflection, since self-association of consciousness with another consciousness, with the previous and future states of consciousness and action is achieved. It is the comparison of an ideal image with real-life images realized in daily activities that allow forming a unique new result of thinking that corresponds to the spirit of the time. Creativity is not an ideal image, rather a deviation from it. In the tradition of understanding, the main focus is on the variability, the variability of the meaning interwoven into the acts of communication, including the linguistic one. Expansion of meanings and content as a result of interpretation contribute to the creation of the world in our heads. This world is woven from millions of images, thoughts, including patterns that ae not always ready-made, and popular models. A world in which there is no resistance to reality has no concepts of time and space. All meanings of an abstract world exist forever, do not grow old, do not leave us unless we want it. Going beyond the patterns of thinking allows identifying the conceivable ideas of the past and the future that determine the infinity of knowledge. The phenomenon of creativity is closely intertwined with the mechanisms of reflection as an ability of natural thinking, at the stage between subject and abstract thinking. In conclusion, the authors identify the following philosophical and methodological foundations of the relationship between creativity and reflection. Firstly, in content, it is the duality of reflexive processes which lead to a shift in ideal images and are associated with the construction of ideal objects, on the one hand, and the variability, changeability of the meaning included in the acts of communication, including the linguistic one, on the other. And here the phenomenon of creativity is intertwined with the mechanisms of reflection as an ability of natural thinking - at the stage between subject and abstract thinking. Secondly, in form, it is a practical activity related to solving problems for which traditional methods and means do not work. From the standpoint of the result of this activity, reproducibility as a rational reconstructibility in the reflexive picture is admissible: obtaining new knowledge, a new vision proceeding from the old one. Non-reproducibility that involves the creation of a new, previously non-existent result of mental activity is also possible.

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