  This paper proposes a theory of creativity, referred to as honing theory,
which posits that creativity fuels the process by which culture evolves through
communal exchange amongst minds that are self-organizing, self-maintaining, and
self-reproducing. According to honing theory, minds, like other selforganizing
systems, modify their contents and adapt to their environments to minimize
entropy. Creativity begins with detection of high psychological entropy
material, which provokes uncertainty and is arousalinducing. The creative
process involves recursively considering this material from new contexts until
it is sufficiently restructured that arousal dissipates. Restructuring involves
neural synchrony and dynamic binding, and may be facilitated by temporarily
shifting to a more associative mode of thought. A creative work may similarly
induce restructuring in others, and thereby contribute to the cultural
evolution of more nuanced worldviews. Since lines of cultural descent
connecting creative outputs may exhibit little continuity, it is proposed that
cultural evolution occurs at the level of self-organizing minds, outputs
reflect their evolutionary state. Honing theory addresses challenges not
addressed by other theories of creativity, such as the factors that guide
restructuring, and in what sense creative works evolve. Evidence comes from
empirical studies, an agent-based computational model of cultural evolution,
and a model of concept combination.
