Philosophers, artists, scientists push a culture to evolve

I am reading a book about the history of philosophy, something I didn't know anything about and always felt intimidated by -- no more. In a nutshell, philosophy is about wondering, especially wondering about the big picture. As an artist and poet I feel I am a natural philosopher just because of the nature of creating. It always starts with wondering or as you read in many art articles the common term is "what if....".


Artists in all forms, poets, philosophers and I would add scientists, begin with nothing, get an idea, investigate it, create it. I could be talking about a poem, a piece of artwork, a dance or a scientific experiment. The end result is more things are explained, more things understood, more thinking is being done by society. As thinking happens a culture evolves, led at the front or pushed from behind by these "creatives", these artists, scientists, poets, philosophers. I would argue the leaders of evolution of a society are these 4 professions and they should be valued as such, if we are in a society that wants to evolve. Are we?