Abstract :
Selection theory requires multiple, distinct, simultaneouslyactualized
states. In cognition, each thought or cognitive state
changes the ‘selection pressure’ against which the next is evaluated;
they are not simultaneously selected amongst. Creative
thought is more a matter of honing in on a vague idea through
redescribing successive iterations of it from different real or
imagined perspectives; in other words, actualizing potential
through exposure to different contexts. It has been proven that
the mathematical description of contextual change of state
introduces a non-Kolmogorovian probability distribution, and
a classical formalism such as selection theory cannot be used.
This paper argues that creative thought evolves not through a
Darwinian process, but a process of context-driven actualization
of potential
