Kepler combined metaphysical speculation with empirical science. One of the few instances where a delusion led to momentous and true scientific discovery.
Innovation is a threat to academic mediocrities. Professional academics have a vested interest in tradition.
Major mutations in the history of thought are dependent upon geniuses with the following characteristics:
1 – Skepticism carried to the point of iconoclasm
2 – An open mindedness that verges on naive credulity.
3 – Ability to see the familiar in a completely new light
Science and art change when a feeling emerges – that the ‘tradition’ is no longer in step with the mainstream. It becomes meaningless – divorced from reality, and isolated from the integral whole. This allows for thawing of dogma at which point creatives can plunge under the ice/surface and look around.
Kristen Buckley 