The Ethics of Creativity

What effect does creativity have on individuals, groups and societies, and on the fundamental values on which they base their actions and institutions? What constitutes good and evil, right and wrong, and how does creativity disrupt these beliefs? The Ethics of Creativity brings together an impressive collaboration of thinkers from several countries and disciplines to illuminate the thorny issues that arise when novel ideas and products brought forth by creativity collide with the rules and norms of what we believe to be 'right' or 'good'. This book tackles questions of why most people claim to love creativity yet, in practice, may quash creative intentions, how creative innovations can create new ethical problems, when creativity and ethics tend to coincide and when they tend to conflict, and how both creativity and ethics might be harnessed to support a brighter future for all.

Seana Moran is Research Assistant Professor of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Her research examines how individuals' contributions affect others and the 'common good' by exploring the developmental paths to exemplary forms of contribution, including creativity (which transforms the trajectory of culture), prosocial life purpose (which gives a positive direction to a person's life trajectory), and wisdom (which is considered a deep, systemic knowledge of, and skill for affecting, interconnections of the world). She has authored numerous articles and handbook chapters, written the teacher's guide for a youth entrepreneurship textbook, and co-edited/co-authored four other books: Multiple Intelligences around the World, Creativity and Development, and Creative Classrooms Vols. 3 & 4.

David Cropley is the Deputy Director of the Defence and Systems Institute (DASI) and Associate Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of South Australia. He began his working life as an officer the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. His research interests lie in systems engineering, creativity and innovation in engineering processes and the nexus of creative problem-solving and engineering. Associate Professor Cropley is a co-author of Fostering Creativity: A Diagnostic Approach for Higher Education and Organisations and co-editor of The Dark Side of Creativity. He has authored chapters in The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and is a contributor to the Creativity Research Journal, The Journal of Creative Behavior, the International Journal of Creativity and Problem Solving and the Cambridge Journal of Education. In 2013 he co-authored a new book on Creativity and Crime: A Psychological Analysis.

James C. Kaufman is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut, USA. An internationally recognized leader in the field of creativity, he is the author/editor of more than 26 books, including Creativity 101 and the Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Kaufman is the president of American Psychological Association's Division 10, which devoted to creativity and aesthetics. He is the founding co-editor of Psychology of Popular Media Culture and co-founded Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, both published by APA. He was won numerous awards, including the Torrance Award from the National Association for Gifted Children, the Berlyne and Farnsworth Awards from APA, and Mensa's research award.