DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Creative Combinations: Random or Purposive?

Creativity in Science: Chance, Logic, Genius, and Zeitgeist
By Dean Keith Simonton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 232 pp. Cloth, $60.00.

Few topics have been as fascinating to scholars, professionals, and laypeople as creativity, but most social scientists believe that it is beyond the ken of empirical study. One notable exception is D. K. Simonton, who in his recent book, Creativity in Science: Chance, Logic, Genius, and Zeitgeist, presents a systematic view of scientific creativity. He gives primary emphasis to chance as an explanatory concept‹"Creativity functions as if it were a random combinatorial process" (p. 100)‹and describes the process of discovery as "disorderly, unpredictable and chaotic" (p. 8). In examining the role of chance Simonton focuses primarily on products as the lens through which he sees creativity.