Against ‘creativity’: a ­philistine rant

The aspiration to be creative seems today to be more or less compulsory in an increasing number of areas of life. In psychological vocabularies, in economic life, in education and beyond, the values of creativity have taken on the force of a moral agenda. Yet creativity is a value which, though we may believe we choose it ourselves, may in fact make us complicit with what today might be seen as the most conservative of norms: compulsory individualism, compulsory ‘innovation’, compulsory per­formativity and productiveness, the compulsory valorization of the putatively new. This article suggests that, in order to escape the moralizing injunction to be creative, we need to cultivate a kind of ethical philistinism, albeit disaggregating such philistinism from the negativism of outright cynicism or fatuity. However, there is not much use in outlining an abstract model of philistinism. Instead, we take some ‘exemplars’ of a philistine attitude to creativity – Gilles Deleuze, F. R. Leavis, and Paul Cézanne – in order to show how such an ethos can be accomplished, on the one hand, with or without philosophy, and, on the other, with or without even the very idea of creativity itself, invoking instead the notions of ‘inventiveness’ and an ‘ethics of inertia’ as against creativity as such. The message should be that, rather than this or that theory, only exemplars – the bit-by-bit assembly of reminders – can help liberate us from the potentially moronic consequences of the doctrine of creativity.     

‘I'm still a hustler’: entrepreneurial responses to precarity by participants in phase I clinical trials

Abstract

This paper questions the implications of entrepreneurial responses to conditions of employment precarity by ‘healthy volunteers’ in phase I clinical trials in the United States. Such individuals are typically serial participants who often identify as professional volunteers and seek out drug studies as their primary source of income. Drawing on extensive qualitative research, this paper illustrates how healthy volunteers selectively import the identity of ‘hustler’ from the street environment and reposition it as connoting a set of valuable creative skills that give them a competitive edge over other participants. An entrepreneurial ethos allows them to view personal sacrifice and exposure to potentially dangerous drugs as smart investments leading to financially stable futures. These discursive moves normalize extractive, and at times dehumanizing, labour relations that offload expenses and risks to workers.     

从原创性的案例法发展看原创性之内涵

美国原创性的案例法构成了其原创性法律制度的有机组成部分。Burrow-G iles案强调原创性的作品是智力创造的产物,是思想和观念的表现;B leistein案建立了原创性判断的个性理论和"美学不歧视原则;"A lfred案确认并适用了B leistein案有关原创性的判断标准,即考察作品中是否显现出作者的个性;Gracen案确认了演绎作品的原创性标准,即演绎作品同原作品之间存在实质性的区别;Feist案具有重大意义,确认原创性是一项宪法性的要求,否定了额头出汗原则,确定原创性的含义是独立创作加最低限度的创造性,确立了汇编作品的原创性标准,即汇编作品在事实的选择、协调或编排方面是否具备最低限度的创造性。     

Authors’ Rights As An Instrument Of Control: An Overview Of The Ideas Of Authorship And Authors’ Rights In Socialist Yugoslavia,And How These Ideas Did Not Change To Reflect The Ideals Of The Socialist Revolution

The purpose of this paper is to show, using the example of socialist Yugoslavia, how and why authors’ rights laws were applied in a socialist regime relying on the same rhetoric of ownership and individualism that marked their use in the capitalist West. In this way, Yugoslav laws have served us as an excuse to examine the connection between rights guaranteed by the legal apparatus and a type of control over creative processes that these rights make possible. Since it is a fact that both single-party socialism and pluralist capitalism have employed the same concept of authors’ rights and authorship, it is our claim that the two systems have been and are equally interested in limiting creative freedom by means of property derived from authors’ rights. To the extent to which Yugoslav legislative, political, cultural, and ideological practice borrowed from the Soviet variety of socialism, we will consider examples from that tradition as well, treating it as the strictest incarnation of Marxism in Europe.

哲学解释学与法律解释学——《真理与方法》对法学的启示

通过对《真理与方法》等解释学著作的学习 ,本文初步论述了法学的三个问题 :第一 ,法律解释学不是科学理论 ;第二 ,法律解释的创造性及其意义 ;第三 ,理解中的偏见与法学教育活动。     

论中国传统中的顿悟与创新

禅宗的顿悟对于中国传统思想影响深远。作为一种直觉式的思维方式,顿悟本来是有助于创新的,但实际上却由于其注重主观性、整体性、终极性的特点而阻碍了创新。这是造成中国历史上长期缺乏创新的思维根源。对于顿悟的反思揭示出中国传统思维方式中存在的问题,促使我们重新思考渐修和理性的价值,从而推动当代中国社会的创新和发展。     

形象思维的本质及其在公安教育中的重要作用

形象思维是人类基本思维之一，但长期以来都缺乏深入的研究。本文旨在从较深的层次去分析形象思维的本质，从而说明它在创造性思维和创新能力中的重要作用。目前我国的公安高等教育重视抽象思维而忽视形象思维，这不利于学生创造性思维和创新能力的培养。本文举例说明了形象思维在公安高等教育中的重要作用，并指出培养形象思维的途径。     

论物业管理企业文化特征及其建设

随着时代的进步，企业文化作为一种社会文化的折射，在企业发展和生存中的作用日益重要。本文就物业管理企业文化的内涵、特征与内容作了深入分析，并对物业管理企业在企业文化建设中应注意的问题作了阐述。     

绘画式辅助学习在少儿英语中的重要性(英文)

English has been taken seriously in more and more countries including China.English should be stressed from the childhood.Children’s English learning is very important.And a good learning method can get twice the result with half the effort.Thus,finding a good method is important in children’s English learning.This thesis aims to testify the drawing-assisted learning is helpful for the children’s English learning by expounding the relationship between the drawing-assisted learning and the balance development,creativity,imagination and memory and its application in children’s English learning.     

Financing the Arts: The Consequences of Interaction among Artists,Financial Support,and Creativity Motivation

The authors analyze how different financial modes matter to the creativity of artists—whether they facilitate or interfere with the creativity that leads to artistic achievements. They first discuss the importance of the creative process and the various factors involved—personality characteristics, environmental factors, and motivation patterns. They next distinguish and analyze the nature and rationales of various modes of financing the arts, dividing these modes into government, the market, and the third sphere. Finally, the authors analyze the interrelations among the creative process and financing when applying a social support system. The investigation thereof relies predominantly on earlier work in the field of cultural economics. The results of a survey conducted among Dutch visual artists form the empirical basis of this article.