Creativity: Surprise and abductive reasoning

This paper investigates creativity focusing on the nature of abductive reasoning, as originally formulated by Peirce, situating it in the context of the theory of self-organization. An ancient question will be addressed: is it appropriate to investigate creative processes from a mechanistic perspective or do they involve subjective elements which cannot in principle be investigated from a mechanistic view? This question will guide our investigation, which has as an initial hypothesis that creativity starts with surprise and involves a self-organizing process in which abductive reasoning occurs allowing the expansion of well-structured set of beliefs. This process is considered a part of the establishment of habits in self-organizing systems. We argue that a deeper understanding of how self-organizing processes involving abductive reasoning may take place in creative systems could elucidate the complex debate about the mechanical versus nonmechanical ingredients of creativity.