Phil/Psych 447

Seminar in Cognitive Science

Upcoming events:

• Oct. 20: Paul Thagard, Visual Thinking in Discovery and Invention
• Oct. 25: students only
• Oct. 27: Essay 1 due

How to be a successful scientist

Week 5: Genius and Brains

Questions about eminent individuals (ch. 9)

1. What is a genius? What are the relevant exemplars, prototypes, and explanations?
2. What is the difference between personal, historical, and world-historical creativity?
3. What are the psychological correlates of genius?
4. Are there degrees of genius?
5. Why is productivity a hallmark of genius?
6. How is genius related to psychopathology?
7. Are some leaders geniuses?
8. Can genius be fostered?
9. Is everyday creativity important?

Questions about neuroscience (ch. 11)

1. Can creativity be explained as a neural process?
2. Is creativity a right-brain phenomenon?
3. Does creativity arise from reductions in network inhibition?
4. What neural mechanisms are responsible for cognitive processes such as conceptual combination and analogy?
5. What role does emotion play in neural processes of creativity?
6. Does creativity have a genetic basis?
7. What are the relations between neural and social mechanisms of creativity?

Phil/Psych 447

Paul Thagard

Computational Epistemology Laboratory.

This page updated Oct. 10, 2011