This paper investigates creativity focusing on the nature of abductive reasoning, as originally formulated by Peirce, situating it in the context of the theory of self-organization. An ancient question will be addressed: is it appropriate to investigate creative processes from a mechanistic perspective or do they involve subjective elements which cannot -in principle -be investigated from a mechanistic view? This question will guide our investigation, which has as an initial hypothesis that creativity starts with surprise and involves a self-organizing process in which abductive reasoning occurs allowing the expansion of well-structured set of beliefs. This process is considered a part of the establishment of habits in self-organizing systems. We argue that a deeper understanding of how self-organizing processes involving abductive reasoning may take place in creative systems could elucidate the complex debate about the mechanical versus nonmechanical ingredients of creativity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.