The Ethics of Creativity

What effect does creativity have on individuals, groups and societies, and on the fundamental values on which they base their actions and institutions? What constitutes good and evil, right and wrong, and how does creativity disrupt these beliefs? The Ethics of Creativity brings together an impressive collaboration of thinkers from several countries and disciplines to illuminate the thorny issues that arise when novel ideas and products brought forth by creativity collide with the rules and norms of what we believe to be 'right' or 'good'. This book tackles questions of why most people claim to love creativity yet, in practice, may quash creative intentions, how creative innovations can create new ethical problems, when creativity and ethics tend to coincide and when they tend to conflict, and how both creativity and ethics might be harnessed to support a brighter future for all.

Seana Moran, EdD, is Research Assistant Professor at Clark University, USA.
 
David Cropley, PhD, is the Deputy Director of the Defence and Systems Institute and Associate Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of South Australia. James Kaufman, PhD, is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut, USA.

Introduction: The Crossroads of Creativity and Ethics; Seana Moran
PART I: WHAT ARE THE MORAL MENTAL MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN CREATIVITY, AND HOW DO THEY DEVELOP?
1. The Development of Moral Imagination; Darcia Narvaez and Kellen Mrkva
2. Moral Craftsmanship; Mark Coekelbergh
3. Creativity in Ethical Reasoning; Robert J. Sternberg
4. Moral Creativity and Creative Morality; Qin Li and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
5. Creative Artists and Creative Scientists: Where Does the Buck Stop?; James Noonan and Howard Gardner
PART II: WHEN, HOW, AND WHY DOES CREATIVITY LEAD TO POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE ETHICAL IMPACTS - OR BOTH?
6. A Creativity Alchemy; Ruth Richards
7. License to Steal: How the Creative Identity Entitles Dishonesty; Lynne C. Vincent and Jack A. Goncalo
8. Engineering, Ethics, and Creativity: N'er the Twain Shall Meet?; David H. Cropley
9. Construction or Demolition: Does Problem Construction Influence the Ethicality of Creativity?; Daniel J. Harris, Roni Reiter-Palmon, and Gina Scott Ligon
10. Intelligent Decision-Making Technology and Computational Ethics; Anthony Finn
PART III: WHAT ROLE DOES ETHICS PLAY IN SUPPORTING OR THWARTING CREATIVITY?
11. Creative Transformations of Ethical Challenges; Vera John-Steiner and Reuben Hersh
12. The Hacker Ethic for Gifted Scientists; Kirsi Tirri
13. The Dialogic Witness: New Metaphors of Creative and Ethical Work in Documentary Photography; Charlotte Dixon and Helen Haste
14. Neglect of Creativity in Education: A Moral Issue; Arthur Cropley
15. The Ethical Demands Made on Leaders of Creative Efforts; Michael D. Mumford, David R. Peterson, Alexandra E. MacDougall, Thomas A. Zeni, and Seana Moran
Horizons: An Ethics of Possibility; Seana Moran
Summary: Creativity and Ethics: Two Golden Eggs; David H. Cropley, James C. Kaufman, Michelle Murphy, and Seana Moran