Bronowski Links Creativity And Change, in Conference Address

The conditions for scientific creativity, the desire to create, the wish to increase knowledge, and the ability to regard art as the work of an individual were stressed during the conference on "Scientific Creativity in an Organizational Setting" held Monday through Wednesday.

In his keynote address, J. Bronowski, director general of the Process Development Department of the British National Control Board, indicated that creativity is encouraged only in societies that value changes.

"Most societies are in favor of creativity, but not all are interested in it, he said. Creativity stems from civilizations where action, not contemplation, is esteemed.

Traces Creative Periods

He noted that during the two greatest periods of creativity, ancient Greece from the sixth to the fourth century B.C. and the Renaissance from 1500 to the present, great scientific discoveries and important works of art have been produced simultaneously. This seems to indicate that once a creative spirit seizes a society, it is one spirit manifested in numerous ways.

Bronowski added that "these great periods of creativity were both centered around Mediterranean civilizations in which people began to believe that life on earth was not only a preparation for life after death."

The educational, governmental, and industrial settings of creativity were discussed by a panel moderated by Norman F. Ramsey, professor of Physics; Dr. H. B. G. Casimir, director of Philips Research Laboratories, the Netherlands; Dr. Emanuel R. Piore, director of Research, International Business Machines Corporation; and James A. Shannon, director, National Institute of Health, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Casimir defined creativity as "the opening of new fields of thought; any sort of activity which is at all different from existing activity.