Final answer:
The statement attributing the idea that 'creativity is the mother of invention' to Plato is false. Plato's philosophy highlights the eternal and unchanging world of forms as the source of all truth, accessed through abstract reasoning rather than creativity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement "According to Plato, creativity is the mother of invention, capable of giving rise to a new state" is false. Plato's philosophy emphasized that the world we observe is just a shadow of a higher, truer reality that is eternal and unchanging, which consists of forms such as goodness and beauty.
He believed that through careful abstract reasoning, and not merely through sensory experience or creativity, can we arrive at truths about these eternal forms.
Plato is known for his theory of forms and his belief in the traditional account of knowledge, which explains knowledge as justified true belief. To Plato, True knowledge or wisdom comes from understanding these unchanging forms, rather than merely inventing new things.
He argued that through critical thinking, abstraction, categorization, and inductive reasoning, we could ascertain the essence of things, an approach quite different from equating creativity with invention.
Therefore, while creativity is an important aspect of human intelligence and is essential in various disciplines and endeavors, according to Plato, it is not the root of invention in the context of discovering the ultimate truths of the universe.
For Plato, the key to unlocking these truths lay in abstract reasoning and philosophic inquiry, particularly through the study of mathematics and the rigorous contemplation of forms.