Rationality, choice and modernism

Notes on Jon Elster’s theory of creativity

Bibliographic Data

ID8243043
AuthorsThomas Osborne (0000-0002-3225-203X, University of Bristol), Thomas J Osborne (0000-0003-1107-7823, University of Bristol, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume23
Issue2
Pages175-197
Publication date2011-05-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRationality and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1043-4631 • E-ISSN: 1461-7358
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1043463111404672
OpenAlexW2092438289
LanguageEN
References cited17

This article sketches an assessment of Jon Elster’s theory of creativity in the arts, especially in the context of modernism. Elster’s perspective on constraints in the arts is immensely valuable for thinking through questions of artistic strategies, norms, innovation and originality. The article considers Elster’s views on artistic maxima, including a consideration of the distinction between aesthetic and non-aesthetic emotions, and then applies some of his insights to the field of modern poetic discourse as a means of assessing some aspects of his theory. It is argued that Elster’s prioritising of classical principles of artistic creativity as against modernist principles is not in fact necessitated by his own theoretical perspective. Indeed, constraint theory is in many ways as applicable to modernism as it is to classicism

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Classicism · Creativity · Epistemology · Literature · Originality · Poetry · Rationality · Sketch · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Artistic and Creative Research · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art · History · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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