Creativity, Virtue and the Challenges from Natural Talent, Ill-Being and Immorality

We praise and admire creative people in virtually every domain. We also sometimes blame, condemn or withhold praise from those who fail creatively. This article outlines and develops my virtue theoretic account of exemplary creativity that makes sense of how and why we think in this way. If we are interested in a robust account of creative excellence we need to look at the underlying psychological mechanisms that enable individuals to be imaginative, surprising or original (and those which undermine them). I will suggest that what it is to be a creatively excellent person depends – amongst other things - upon certain admirable character traits such as curiosity, courage and perseverance. Creative virtues are admirable character traits that ground creative excellence and contribute to individual flourishing. Once the view is laid out the rest of the paper will be devoted to addressing apparent objections to this view emerging from the psychological and philosophical literature: challenges based on claims concerning a) the idea that it is natural talent not character that matters for creativity b) if being creative is significantly linked to mental illness then being creative promotes ill-being rather than well-being or flourishing and c) potential and apparent conflicts between moral and creative virtues.