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A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry into Human Creativity

Mission an vision

Human work – science, technology, craft, the arts, industry, social work, etc. – is the milieu where the active role of humanity in creation produces concrete consequences. According to some approaches (mainly, but not only, in psychology and some sectors of philosophy), creativity is regarded as a faculty of the person, stemming from aspects of the character and/or cognitive attitudes. The notion of innovation is often used to indicate the outcomes of creative processes which receive social acceptance and thus stabilize and spread in a given social context.
In this line, an innovation is such because of its social relevance. A further level is reached when an innovation acquires relevance not only in reference to a social context, but for reality as such: it is here that human creativity acquires its fully ontological import. Creativity, hence, makes humanity God’s effective collaborator (the created co-creator): it ensures real novelty and growth.

Our aim

We have the aim to contribute an encompassing and interdisciplinary theory of human creativity relevant in natural, human, philosophical and theological sciences. Our objective is to show how creativity is an essential character of the human being. Several disciplines unveil different, apparently disconnected aspects of creativity. However, all these aspects can, and should, be framed in a unified and synthetic view. Thus, the aim of this project is to build (or contribute to) such a synthesis, centered on the notion that the human being is the subject of its own flourishing (both individually and collectively) and of the development of the world’s potentialities. 

Focusing our research on creativity also has a strategic value in advocating human uniqueness in the contemporary research milieu. Indeed, human creativity can nowadays be better pursued by “contrasting” it with animal cognition and artificial intelligence, as well as with our ancestors’ historical and prehistoric creative outcomes. Such comparisons will put to test the mentioned means/ends working hypothesis:

Can other life forms or artificial systems creatively elaborate new ends, or are they bound to devise novel means only?

 

 

Bacheca

How does AI interact with human creativity? Professor Corazza resp...

On February 15, the Permanent Seminar of the International Higher School for Interdisciplinary Research (SISRI) took place, with Professor Giovanni Corazza from the University of Bologna as a guest. The theme of the SISRI Permanent Seminar this academic year is "The Faces of Creativity. Human Specificity in the Scientific Context," linked with the Research Project A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry into Human Creativity.

The "Santa Croce Research Laboratory" is established...

In line with the objectives of the 2024-2029 Strategic Plan, the Rectorate has established the Research Laboratory Santa Croce .

This new entity will specifically focus on coordinating and providing support to the research groups that have formed as a result of the Call for Projects of the academic years 2022-23 and 2023-24, as emphasized by the Vice-Rector of the University, Rev. Prof. Giovanni Zaccaria, to whom the Laboratory is organically dependent.

Intervista al prof. Giovanni Zaccaria a proposito del "Labora...

In linea con gli obiettivi del Piano strategico 2024-2029 dell'Università, è stata annunciata la creazione, da parte del Rettorato, del nuovo Laboratorio di Ricerca Santa Croce.

A questo proposito, pubblichiamo una breve intervista al Vicerettore, rev. prof. Giovanni Zaccaria, da cui dipende organicamente il Laboratorio.

Come nasce il Laboratorio di Ricerca Santa Croce?

Expert Meeting on "Creativity and Innovation in Religion...

Between 29-31 of January 2025 was held Expert Meeting organised in collaboration with (and co-funded by)  the Catholic University of America through a Templeton Religion Trust grant awarded to Brandon Vaidyanathan, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institutional Flourishing Lab in the Catholic University of America.

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