Presymbolic Processes in Scientific Creativity

Most accounts of scientific thinking emphasize the role of symbolic recombinations as the source of creativity. This misses the important role that presymbolic processes may play. This article argues that the relative neglect is, in part, due to erroneous models of explanation, which dominate much of the literature, and argues instead for a model of explanation based on an analogy to dynamic physical systems. As an example, some of Michael Faraday's work is described and analyzed using dynamic approaches in an informal manner. The results suggest that, using William James's (1890) phrasing, it is possible to seek a 'reinstatement of the vague to its proper place in the mental life.'