Correlation: the key to Doubting Castle: chapter summary

A full understanding of the creative spark utterly lacking was obtained in the previous chapter. However, the terms delineating the creative spark utterly lacking, and in the exegesis given of them, could still be subject to disputes over their interpretation. A further, and still firmer, rooting remained desirable.

The delineation of creativity utterly lacking can be recalled.

so mechanical or routine

entirely typical ... end product ... garden-variety

could not be more obvious ... the most basic information

dictated by state law

an age-old practice, firmly rooted in tradition and so commonplace that it has come to be expected as a matter of course ... practically inevitable ... time-honored tradition.

(Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Service Co., Inc., 1991, pp. 362-363).

There is a strong analogy with the concept of computability.

It seems that this importance [of Turing’s computability] is largely due to the fact that with this concept one has for the first time succeeded in giving an absolute definition of an interesting epistemological notion, i.e., one not depending on the formalism chosen. In all other cases treated previously, such as demonstrability or definability, one has been able to define them only relative to a given language, and for each individual language it is clear that the one thus obtained is not the one looked for.

(Godel, 1946/2004, p. 84)

The analogy with the creative spark utterly lacking in the decision rests primarily on an overall, or gestalt, effect of' correspondence. The overall correspondence of the extended delineation of the creative spark utterly lacking to concepts of computability corresponds to broad equivalence.

(so mechanical V routine) ~ computability

Computability is of compelling contemporary significance and of acute practical relevance to compilations.

The analogy can be more closely specified. Specifically, mechanical in ‘so mechanical’ (Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Service Co., Inc., 1991, p. 362) has an identity in expression with mechanicalvci a mechanical procedure, is similarly derived from ordinary discourse, with the ordinary' discourse meaning adopted and retained, can refer to a human acting mechanically and to the operations of a machine, and invokes a process by denotation. Mechanical in ‘so mechanical’ (p. 362) can then be regarded as equivalent to mechanical in a mechanical procedure, or, in logical notation,

mechanical (so mechanical) = mechanical (automatic mechanical procedure)

So in ‘so mechanical’ (p. 362) implies intensity. An automatic mechanical procedure is generally regarded as the purest or most intense form of mechanical procedure. ‘[S]o mechanical’ then corresponds to an automatic mechanical procedure, algorithm, or computational process, or, in terms of formal logic,

so mechanical = automatic mechanical procedure

We have then identified a specific correlation within the overall analogy.

The closer specification of the analogy also enables a refinement of the overall analogy. Elements of routinicity can be differentiated from the so mechanical. We can then refine the overall analogy to incorporate the direct correspondence of ‘so mechanical’ (p. 362) to computability and to recognize the remaining elements of routinicity. ‘[S]o mechanical or routine’ (p. 362) then be understood to correspond to an automatic mechanical procedure or so ... routine process.

On the basis of this correspondence, we can transform the conclusion of the previous chapter, on the opposite to creativity. We can substitute automatic mechanical procedure for so mechanical in the verbal statement

A compilation has not the slightest trace of creativity if, and only if, it is constructed by a so mechanical or so ... routine process and is an entirely typical or garden-variety end product, can now be further developed.

becomes

A compilation has not the slightest trace of creativity if, and only if, it is constructed by an automatic mechanical procedure or so ... routine process and is an entirely typical or garden-variety end product.

The parallel logical formulations can be similarly transformed.

~ (A compilation has the slightest trace of creativity) <-> ((so mechanical V so ... routine) A (entirely typical V garden-variety))

becomes

~ (A compilation has the slightest trace of creativity) ((automatic mechanical procedure V so ... routine) A (entirely typical V garden-variety))

We have obtained the desired further rooting of the antithesis to creativity.

From the correlation and rooting established, we can move to an understanding of creativity, in its positive sense.

We have then linked the dominant components of creativity utterly lacking to something of compelling contemporary significance and practical relevance, capable of being known, and understood as absolute, signified by the anvil shape in the figure of progress made (see Figure 5.2). We have transcended from the possible questioning of terms in creativity utterly lacking, by drawing upon the com-pellingly significant and deeply rooted concept of computability, and we can resume our journey.

We must now traverse the implication of creativity, in the next chapter.