On the history of heuristic

This article outlines Pólya’s model of “invention and discovery” and acknowledges and draws attention to his eminence and pre-eminence (in both senses of this term) in introducing the modern conception of heuristic, as well as the modern approach to creative problem solving. Although Pólya (1945) himself described his contribution as “modest” (p. 113), all later writers on models of creative problem solving in fact owe a debt to Pólya. It is not always (in fact, it is seldom) acknowledged. This article aims to remedy that.