The Creative Mind

The final published book by Nobel Prize-winning author and philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941), La pensée et le mouvant, "Thought and Movement"-here translated as The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics-is a masterly "autobiography" of his philosophical method. Through essays and lectures written between 1903 and 1923, Bergson retraces how and why he became a philosopher, along the way crafting a fascinating critique of philosophy itself. Until it leaves its false paths, he demonstrates, philosophy will remain only a wordy dialectic that at best "solves" false problems. With consummate skill and intensity Bergson shows that, for philosophy to become a genuine search for truth, metaphysics and science must be rooted in experience; and further, that to make real headway on this quest the spiritual dimension of human life and the importance of intuition must occupy center stage. The Creative Mind has been a source of inspiration for physicists as well as philosophers, as Bergson reveals in these pages a lively philosophy uniting man's spiritual drive with his mastery of the physical world-that is, a philosophy ever "in movement," as the original French title plainly states. This Angelico Press edition includes a new foreword by Iain McGilchrist that serves to situate and burnish the pivotal importance of Bergson and this book amid the dark warren of today's errant paths.

How is it possible to think new thoughts? What is creativity and can science explain it? And just how did Coleridge dream up the creatures of The Ancient Mariner ? When The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms was first published, Margaret A. Boden's bold and provocative exploration of creativity broke new ground. Boden uses examples such as jazz improvisation, chess, story writing, physics, and the music of Mozart, together with computing models from the field of artificial intelligence to uncover the nature of human creativity in the arts. The second edition of The Creative Mind has been updated to include recent developments in artificial intelligence, with a new preface, introduction and conclusion by the author. It is an essential work for anyone interested in the creativity of the human mind.

How is it possible to think new thoughts? What is creativity and can science explain it? And just how did Coleridge dream up the creatures of The Ancient Mariner ? When The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms was first published, Margaret A. Boden's bold and provocative exploration of creativity broke new ground. Boden uses examples such as jazz improvisation, chess, story writing, physics, and the music of Mozart, together with computing models from the field of artificial intelligence to uncover the nature of human creativity in the arts. The second edition of The Creative Mind has been updated to include recent developments in artificial intelligence, with a new preface, introduction and conclusion by the author. It is an essential work for anyone interested in the creativity of the human mind.