Creativity and evil

Royal Institute of Philosophy public lecture in conjunction with the Centre for Research into Imagination, Creativity and Knowledge (CRICK) and the Centre for Modern Studies (CModS)

It is generally agreed that a capacity is creative only if its products are valuable; for mere originality does not suffice for creativity. But this value requirement on creativity seems inconsistent with the existence of evil actions that are also apparently creative. Examples include financial fraud, the invention of torture devices, and terrorism. This paper examines whether evil creativity really does exist, and if so whether it shows that the value condition on creativity is mistaken.