Creativity in the thought of William Ernest Hocking and Henry Nelson Wieman

Abstract

Metaphysical creativity and religious creativity are two closely related problems in the thought of William Ernest Hocking and Henry Nelson Wieman. For Hocking "creativity is the criterion of reality," and the Real is the independent being. For him metaphysical creativity is the bringing into being of something other than its own ideas by an Absolute Mind. The choice by the Absolute Mind of this particular world is the creation by that Mind of its own Body. This choice expressed in its exercise of will in accord with its purpose accounts for the arrival of inorganic matter, organisms, and human selves. The execution of this choice explains the original and continual dependence of the physical world in its givenness, lawfulness, and publicity. Originally the Absolute Self creates the possibilities of many different physical worlds, chooses one of them in accord with His purpose, and executes His choice of this particular world through an expression of will. Continually the purposive character of this choice and expression is evident in the givenness, lawfulness, and publicity of physical nature as a whole, and the passages within nature from inorganic matter to organisms and from organisms to human selves [TRUNCATED].