ECHOES OF SILENCE - A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Creativity when studied from both psychological and philosophical pers pectives, emerges as a significant and uniquely human experience. The phenomenological method, widely recognized as the philosophical method best suited to the study of human experience, is used both to organiz e this article and to interpret its findings. I correlate noematic (or static) data concerning the experience of the creative act as it is p erceived by creative people with noetic (or dynamic) data concerning t he nature and meaning of the creative act itself Ghiselin's (1952) ant hology, The Creative Process, is the main source for primary material on the creative experiences of artists and poets. These writings are t hen closely examined phenomenologically-contrasting Nietzsche's and Po incare's analyses of the creative process with more recent theories of creativity-and common themes identified. Thus, creativity is viewed t hrough the medium of a phenomenologically informed process orientation , which excludes both the idea that creativity has as its end a finali zed product and the idea that the personal traits of the artist someho w completely determine this product. I then explore the reciprocal nat ure of interdisciplinarity by incorporating the different perspectives and concerns of creator and audience, literary and visual artist, phi losopher and psychologist.