Creative Thinking / How We Do Things

Two texts previously published separately combined in a single volume, these two series of lectures and practical talks were given at Coombe Springs, UK in 1964-1965 by John Bennett. Participants included community members and visitors. In "Creative Thinking" Bennett explores the creative process, beginning with the premise that to create means to bring into the world something which had no previous existence. This process is applied to the spontaneous emergence of ideas and solutions. In "How We Do Things" Bennett takes further the idea he described in his first book "The Crisis in Human Affairs" published 17 years earlier. This is that for an action to be defined as "doing" requires a definite intention to act. All else is reaction to external or internal stimuli. Bennett takes his students through a process of examining the way we use our physical presence and activities.