The next article in our series Rethinking Technology & Creativity in the 21st Century for the journal TechTrends was just published.This article features an interview with Dr. Arne Dietrich, professor of neuroscience at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. He describes himself as a “tour guide into the bizarre world of brain cells and human behavior.” He has written a textbook on consciousness as well as a more popular book on the neuroscience of creativity. In this interview Dr. Dietrich was quite skeptical…
about what neuroscience offers to complex sociocultural concepts, such as creativity. Dr. Dietrich reminded us that creativity is a complex social phenomenon that is, above all, a created construct. Creativity is difficult to relate to other social constructs, such as certain types of thinking or intelligence, without further reducing it to the mechanisms that make it happen. His reductionist approach may seem ironically positivistic for a topic like creativity, but its repercussions are, in the end, deeply humanizing.
Complete article and citation follows:
Mehta, R., Henriksen, D., Mishra, P. & The Deep-Play Research Group (2017). The Courageous Rationality of Being a Neuroskeptic Neuroscientist: Dr. Arne Dietrich on Creativity and Education. Tech Trends (61)5. 415-419. DOI 10.1007/s11528-017-0217-x