Guest Lecture on Conceptual Pluralism of Creativity

In his lecture "Conceptual Pluralism about Creativity," Prof. Dr. Nimcs will focus on the concept of creativity and its various definitions:

“There apparently is no single concept of creativity. Concepts of creativity seems rather to abound, and the term ‘creative’ is used in a plethora of slightly varying meanings.
In my talk, I survey the conceptual space of creativity. I argue that the variation in concepts we find across this space is not erratic but rather systematic. Taking a page from the philosophy of language, I consider three linguistic mechanisms apt to create alterations in the meaning of ‘creative’ – (1) conceptual differentiation, (2) semantic adjustment, and (3) dimensional variation.
I argue that these mechanisms neatly account for much of the topology we find in the conceptual space of creativity. They also dissolve a number of puzzles about our use of ‘creative’, and our intuitions about creativity."

The event is organized by the Interdisciplinary Center for German Studies Riga, University of Latvia, Faculty of Humanities, and the The Baltic-German University Liaison Office.

Christian Nimtz is professor for theoretical philosophy at Bielefeld University, Germany. 

He studied philosophy at Göttingen and Oxford and did his PhD in 2000 and his Habilitation in 2007 at Bielefeld. Before returning to Bielefeld University in 2012, he held fixed-term positions at the University of Hamburg (D), the University of Zurich (CH) and the University of Reading (UK) and was full professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg from 2009 to 2012.

Christian Nimtz works mainly in the philosophy of language with a focus on semantics /pragmatics, conceptual engineering, and meta-philosophy. Recent publications include the book “Die dunkle Seite der Sprache: Wie Wörter ausgrenzen, abwerten und manipulieren“ (C.H. Beck 2025) with Tim Henning and Nikola Kompa. He is part of the CRC 1646 „Linguistic Creativity in Communication” at Bielefeld University.