14th International CREANDO Symposium, Creativity in Economics, Arts and Science, Zermatt/Valais, Switzerland 2000

Topic
TO LEAVE A SCRATCH ON THE WALL OF OBLIVION
Creating values for a new millennium

Chairman: Gottlieb GUNTERN

Speakers

Charles H. TOWNES
experimental physicist, Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology,Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 (along with Russian scientists N.G. Basov and Aleksandr M. Prokhorov), author, USA

John GAGE
Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Graduate School of Business, doctoral work in mathematics and economics at the University of California, Berkeley,Chief Researcher & Director of the Science Office Sun Microsystems, USA

T. Ryugen OGASAWARA
B.A. in Buddhism and English from Komazawa University,M.A. in Indian philosophy and Buddhism from Tokyo University,Professor in Buddhism and English at Komazawa University,Director of Komazawa University International Buddhist Institute,Chief Priest at the Kotakuji temple, Japan

Derek WALCOTT
poet, essayist and playwright, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992, St. Lucia, Lesser Antilles

Antonio MÁRQUEZ
dancer, choreographer, founder of Antonio Márquez Company, Spain

Summary - Gottlieb Guntern

The great writer William Faulkner observed that almost everybody wants to leave a scratch on the wall of oblivion. The need to trick the finality of individual death seems to belong to the most powerful motivations driving human endeavor and, particularly, creative performance.

In contemporary society we focus more on the price of things rather than on their value. We opt for the maximum rather than for the optimum. The urgent takes precedence over the important. Yet with such an attitude we will not produce creative achievements. Thus we will not generate values for future generations — let alone leave a scratch on the wall of oblivion.

Downloads
• General Introduction Gottlieb GUNTERN
• Introduction to Charles H. TOWNES
• Introduction to John GAGE
• Introduction to T. Ryugen OGASAWARA
• Introduction to Derek WALCOTT
• Introduction to Antonio MÁRQUEZ