Creativity in Social Revolutions: Bisociative and Cyclical Processes

This book offers a new perspective on the structure of contemporary social revolutions and wars. It analyzes the actions of the participants and looks at possible solutions from the perspective of “bisociativity.” The book elaborates on this concept, originally formulated by Arthur Koestler, which sees the underlying human creativity in finding a solution as a spontaneous leap of insight connecting previously unconnected matrices of discourse. Drawing from Marxist theory, the author discerns bisociative frames in contemporary revolutions, such as the Bolivian revolution of 2000-2003-2005 or between different uprisings in Poland, which led to the independent workers’ union solidarity. One of the central aims of the book is the search for a bisociative frame that includes historical materialism as one of its two components. It suggests that historical materialism is not a sufficient but necessary condition for understanding the complexity of contemporary struggles. Discussions in different chapters point to the missing component of Marxist revolutionary theory: individual self-identity as the second component of the bisociative frame. The author brings this analysis to the table from his background in mathematics education and teaching, and points to how using mathematical generalization may help identify bisociative frames and therefore help find innovative solutions to conflicts.