Creativity in the moral domain: Ought implies can implies create

Abstract

: The relations between creativity and morality require fresh attention in a time of rapid social and technological change and multiple global crises. World civilization as presently constituted is committed to policies entailing exponential growth, which in the long run, unfortunately, will be impossible to maintain (e.g., in any variable 2% growth per year yields a doubling period of about 40 years). Such conditions affect moral issues of fairness, justice, caring for others, and even truth. As a result, we witness a growing awareness of moral diversity and the slow—too slow?—emergence of new moral orientations, not least of which is planetary morality. In stable and simple enough conditions we may say that “Ought”; statements imply “Can”; and in turn Ought and Can together imply “Act”;: We can reasonably insist that something ought to be done only if it can be done, and when ought and can converge, a moral imperative arises, we must do it. But if there is no such clear road to moral action then only through creative effort can we discover or invent what is possible. This argument is summed up in the expression, Ought implies Can implies Create. It is this idea that has led us to the present exploration of creativity in the moral domain.

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