Creative Kindness

… looping effects or myriad ways of a psychological category

Thesis MA Philosophy of Science, University of Amsterdam

Supervisor: Prof. dr. ir. Gerard de Vries

According to Ian Hacking human kinds, or the kinds found in the human and social sciences, perform looping effects. Human beings are not indifferent to their scientific classification, and with their subsequent reaction the classification changes. Psychology too is supposed to be subject to these effects that make scientific knowledge appear capricious. However, a closer examination of a prototypical psychological category but atypical human kind, creativity, suggests that looping effects might not occur throughout psychology. The scientific classification of creativity has not been very successful, due to its heavy historical and cultural burden. Yet, for being overloaded with value, it can hardly be denied that creativity is a human kind. Kurt Danziger’s approach of psychological categories suggests that they are value laden human kinds not only for looping but also for their derivation from the cultural and historical context. This approach seems more appropriate than Hacking’s in the case of creativity. Also because it acknowledges the difference between applied and fundamental psychology. As illustrated by creativity, looping effects occur for applied psychological categories, however not for their fundamental counterparts. This has some interesting philosophical and psychological implications.