Research On The Technological Creativity

As a means and an activity,technology helps man live and develop in nature.It is one of the most gorgeous thing people have,whose history is as long as human beings'.In one word,the civilized history of humans' is basically a creation history of technology's.However,in a long time,creation had been neglected in the technological activity.Until recently,while people created a brilliant world of artifacts,the fact that the creativity of technology exists came into researcher's vision.The formal beginning of researchers studying on the creativity of technology is the birth of creatology.The study on the creativity of technology is mainly from the fields of psychology,cognitive science and so on now.The problem is these studies are intended to be descriptive and shorting of the technological activity perspective.This dissertation places the creativity of technology in technological activity,analyzes its connotation,occurrence as well as its appearances in the subject,object and concrete technological practice from a philosophical perspective,hoping to answer the questions such as what is the creativity of technology,where it exists,how does it exist,then at these basics to give some suggestions of the creativity of technology cultivation.The dissertation defines the creativity of technology from the philosophical perspective.The creativity of technology is a practice ability which maintains the object into the subject's intention,to realize the subject-object unit,which has the characteristics of inductivity,extrinsic purpose and complex contradiction.Being as a field of activity,the fundamental distinct among the creativity of technology,artistic creativity and science creativity is that though they are all the practice ability realizing subject-object unit,the creativity of technology advocates the subject intention maintaining obj ect,science creativity promotes the subject idea fitting into object,while emphasizes the balance between the subj ect and obj ect.The creativity of technology has a intimate relationship with another two concepts--technological invention ability and technological innovation capability--which representing "the ability to create new technologies".The creativity of technology is the core of these two different capabilities,while they are the concrete appearance of it--invention ability has a tendency to control the natural object,and innovation capability controls the social object.The creativity in the technological activities develops in two ways,the first one is people as a member of nature,since neither natural environment or social environment can meet his needs directly,when he is facing the environment pressure,he has the natural instinct to escape disadvantages,so he need create conditions to meet his own needs.the second is the free spirit.if human can only react to the environment out of instinct,he cannot be recognized as creative,but with the choice of spirit,motivation and will,true creativity comes into being.The creativity of technology exists in the technological activity,especially in the technological subject,technological object and concrete technological practice.In different historic stages,it went through a distinct progress in different technological subjects--primitive,artisan and modern technological subject--from in-itself,self-realization to for-itself.The result of the creativity of technology,which is the object of technological activity,includes technological artifact,technological knowledge and the creative method of technology.The creativity appearing from the technological artifact,technological knowledge to the creative method of technology,showed a tend of the attribute of materials changing from apparent to hidden,while human's intention from hidden to apparent and to control the attribute of materials.As a potential "power",the creativity of technology needs to represent itself in concrete technological practices.The main activities performing the creativity of technology are the technological invention,technological design and technological innovation activity.The creativity in technological invention showed as using the mental ability,including perceiving of nature,proposing the technological question,searching of prototype and transforming of natural laws,to form the idea of new technological object.The creativity in technological design showed as technological subject using creativity to combine the purpose of design with technological principle to create new technological objects.The creativity in technological innovation showed as the technological subject(as community or group)integrating technological chances and social resource to create new products fitting the market's needs.Upon discussion of the creativity of technology above,this dissertation proposes some suggestions of how to cultivate it:protecting humans' cognitive ability to environment,and cultivating healthy personality;emphasizing the spread of technological invention method;noting the difference of cultivation of technological invention ability and technological innovation capability;and establishing the technological-creativity view of Ecologism.