Freedom of creation for culture, business, innovation

The article raises a range of issues concerning innovations and their contribution to the development of modern society and presents the author''s stance in the debate on the importance of freedom of creation for the development of culture and innovations, as well as the role of innovation policy in the development of various aspects of creative activity in Russia. Innovations are defined as new developments or pioneering work that are applicable, valuable for the consumer, obviously productive and utilitarian, and commercially feasible. The author emphasizes that the major essence of innovations lies in their exclusiveness, orientation on and commitment to future market development, as, in the author''s view, it is the only approach to defining innovation that spares national economies the also-ran status by enhancing their competitiveness in the global goods and services market. The author gives special focus to the role of higher education in the process of knowledge production and innovations, stressing the need for a reappraisal of values and a shift of emphasis - from the degree run-of-the-mill towards knowledge production and innovations. The article dwells on the current philosophical perspective on innovations as an individual''s isolated actions, processes and an activity outcome, rather than an individual''s immanent need and the ends and means of life. The author pays special attention to innovations in the humanities, whose in-demand rating in the spheres of public production and consumption is frequently higher than that of innovations in technology and engineering. In this regard, the author emphases the role of culture, which, along with science, serves as a foundation for innovative and creative components ofthe economy of knowledge (or, the new economy).