This article reinterprets the philosophy of Taoism and applies it to creativity. Taoistic cognition is described as intuition or personal knowledge. Taoistic creativity is explained as involving incubation, syntectic thinking, and the unification through opposites. Dialectical thinking, Taoistic meditation and intuition, and symbolic thinking are…

The discovery of penicillin is cited in a discussion of the role of serendipity as it relates to scientific discovery. The importance of sagacity as a personality trait is noted. Successful researchers have questioning minds, are willing to view data from several perspectives, and recognize and appreciate the unexpected. (JW)