1.1 Childlike Curiosity

The long summer day passes slowly in the sunny living room of your apartment in the city.  The lazy afternoon gets rather boring, until you note a source of potential entertainment in the stream of passersby on the street, below.  People watching can be mesmerizing; who are they, where do they come from, where are they going?  A bright reflection of light from your cup in your hand shines down on the pavement.  Hmm, would you think to shine it near the pedestrians as they pass?  Would you see if they noticed it, if they paused to seek its origin?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's son, Christopher, did.  He discovered some interesting patterns, too.  Young people were significantly more likely to stop and pay attention to a reflection dancing on the sidewalk in front of them.  Why this was true, and what it means, could be the subject of a separate study.  The fascinating thing is that the young boy pursued this inquiry at all.  His action would generally be thought precocious, but his enterprise in pursuing it is indicative of our thirst for knowledge, exemplified in the curiosity of a seven-year-old child.

1.2 Hearing is Believing

The Volkswagen Bug has a unique look.  It also makes a distinctive sound; we often know when one passes by simply by its auditory signature.  Michael Brewster heard that sound one evening, and realized that it must be his friend’s.  And that this friend was traveling up the street in the direction of his girlfriend's home, where he was likely heading.  The only bit of information his senses provided was a sound, yet he understood that single sound allowed him to follow a chain of reasoning to a conclusion that was new knowledge.

Knowledge comes to us in many ways.  We generally perceive it as a product of learning or thinking.  Sometimes, however, something as simple as an engine sound can lead to new knowledge.  The knowledge that Michael Brewster’s friend was headed over to his girlfriend's house in his Volkswagen Beetle was not really profound, or even unusual, but it was something unknown to him until he discovered it through an amazing process that began with the sound of an air-cooled engine.

1.3 Knowledge and Humanity

The growth of human knowledge is directly related to the growth of civilization.  At every point where we find evidence of man’s advance, the store of knowledge has increased.  This is facilitated by the transmission of knowledge from one individual to another.  Humans learn many things for themselves, but the majority of the knowledge any one individual possesses has been learned with the help of others. 
The acquisition of knowledge in large part stems from man’s desire to answer two basic questions.  Humans have always sought to understand and explain the universe around them, while simultaneously seeking the meaning and purpose of their own lives within that context.  Ancient civilizations offered quasi-religious explanations for man’s existence, but it was only with the advent of Greek and Indian philosophers that humanity began a systematic attempt to unravel the mysteries of human life and the surrounding universe.
 
In the intervening two and one half millennia, humanity has made amazing strides in its understanding of its place in the cosmos.  The past decades have seen an explosion in scientific understanding and in man’s ability to shape and control his environment.  Yet even as we stride further down the path of greater understanding and knowledge, careful introspection reveals that the more we learn, the more we realize how vast the realm of the unknown is.  That truth, however, underwrites a magnificent future for mankind’s curiosity.  The breadth and depth of knowledge not yet discovered beckons all of us, particularly those in centers of learning like universities, to redouble our efforts to study, research and inquire in order to continue to add to the store of knowledge and push back the frontier of the unknown.

1.4 Project Organization

This call to knowledge forms the intellectual foundation upon which Claremont Graduate University stands.  This project examines the ways in which CGU functions as an institution that facilitates the creation of knowledge, particularly through inductive means.  To that end, a panel of seven faculty members was interviewed regarding how CGU fosters innovation and creativity through scholarly interaction, environmental factors, and vocational congruence.

In order to form a solid structure from which to present the results of this panel, we examine theoretical ideas of knowledge, creativity, and induction in section 2.  Section 3 presents the history of CGU in order to place the findings of this project in a proper context.  The methodology of this study lies in section 4, followed by section 5’s profiles of the faculty members involved in the focus group.  Section 6 presents a summary and analysis of the findings from the panel.