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Jacob Barrett, Ideal and Non- Ideal Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2026) Part of the Elements in Political Philosophy series. Permanently…
The irony here is that both Ben and Paul are fighting the wrong battle — like dinosaurs before the meteor…
I’m an international student presently enrolled in an American Philosophy PhD program. This and similar changes have sent a clear…
More wrongheaded? “Phenomenology”, perhaps.
It’s a very impressive book. I’m more positive than Robin because of the scholarly breadth and depth of Beckert’s research.…
This looks like it was generated by A.I.
We are all agreed that this is AI-generated, right?
Professor Boden, who spent most of her academic career at the University of Sussex, was a leading figure in cognitive science, who wrote extensively on computational models of the mind, on artificial intelligence, and on computational creativity, among other topics, engaging regularly with philosophy and philosophers. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Boden or for those who wish to comment on the significance of her work.
(Thanks to David Gordon for the pointer.)
Margaret Boden was co-founder of Harvester Press. I’m very grateful for her role in publishing the Festschrift that Jenny Teichman and I edited for Elizabeth Anscombe, Intention and Intentionality. And she was instrumental also in bringing out the UK edition of Wittgenstein’s Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, Cambridge, 1939.
I stumbled upon, by chance, Professor Boden's "Artificial Intelligence and Natural Man" in 1984. When I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. It inspired me to pursue a research career in Artificial Intelligence at a time when the field was not at all fashionable. Her book "The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms" remains one of the most insightful accounts of how some forms of creativity could be understood in computational terms.
So sorry to hear that Maggie Boden has passed away. She was a serious force in the world of creativity, AI and philosophy. It was her book "The creative mind" that I picked up in a small bookshop in Edinburgh, which captivated me and set me on my path to researching about creativity, AI and computational creativity. I was lucky enough to be at Sussex while COGS, the centre she founded, was flourishing and she was an ever-present at seminars. I remember many unsuspecting speakers, answering innocuous questions from this somewhat elderly gentle lady in the audience, not realising how sharp she was… more often than not she would be leading up to some serious flaw in their argument that she'd spotted…I had the pleasure of hosting her as a speaker at King's while I was there, and she was both an excellent speaker and a very engaging guest to have visit. Her ideas still hold strong today, and she'll continue to influence people long after her passing. RIP Professor Margaret Boden.
Thank you for flagging that 1977 book by Prof. Boden! It's available to read here for the cost of a free registration at archive.org: https://archive.org/details/artificialintell0000bode_k9b4/. I have to disagree, however, with the statement that AI was not at all fashionable in the '80s. Indeed, I remember reading a feature story in New Yorker in 1981 about Marvin Minsky's contributions to AI. It's pay-walled for me, but perhaps some can view it: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1981/12/14/a-i. At the time I recall thinking Minsky, as smart as he was, nevertheless got a bit carried away with the hype about the technology.
During the second year of my PhD, as I wrestled with the ideas I wanted to defend, I began to question whether those abstract questions concerning the nature of musical works warranted the effort I was investing in trying to answer them.
It was at that point that I picked up The Creative Mind, a book that has since deeply influenced my thinking and academic path. Margaret Boden's lucid writing gave me hope that my theoretical inquiry into the nature of art, creativity, and aesthetic perception could have an impact on practical questions around the development of human and artificial creativity.
I haven't stopped thinking about Boden's work since, and my engagement with the topic of creativity has always been in dialogue with her thoughts, guided by an aspiration to contribute to the field with comparable depth and clarity.
In 2018, I presented my ideas on creativity for the first time at a conference in Cambridge, where she was also present, but I was too hesitant to approach her. I wish I had taken the opportunity to thank her for the influence of her work and for reawakening my passion for thinking about art and creativity.
I never had the chance to meet Margaret Boden in person, but her ideas have been a steady influence on my thinking and research, sometimes directly, other times through the many scholars and conversations her work has inspired.
Margaret always helps me understand how powerful language is in shaping science. It’s not just about communication, it’s about attention. The words we choose don’t just describe reality; they define what we see, what we notice, and what questions we dare to ask. She gave names to different kinds of creativity and by doing so, she gave us the language to see them, discuss them, study them, and build on them.
Now, in the age of generative AI, her framework feels more relevant than ever. I have immense respect for those who provide foundational ideas that open space for others to create and question. I think Margaret Boden did that. And I believe that the intellectual structure built on her work still has much to teach us – about minds, about machines, and about ourselves. (And yes, I said “teach,” not “profit.”)
Thank you, Margaret.
I was an undergraduate when I made my way to creativity. I was studying math and art and was looking for a way to merge the seemingly unorthodox harmony between the two.
Soon enough, I found ICCC and Boden’s work has since given me so much grounding to carry on this path of work. I start all of my presentations with Boden’s work and seeing her and her work has given me so much presence in this space.
I thank her for being a great life force and a force on earth!
I consider myself intensely lucky to have benefitted from Maggie’s teaching in the late 80s. Her course in conceptual analysis really made me think about the language I was using although, sadly, I never did learn to use ‘will’ and ‘shall’ properly! Thanks Maggie 🙂
In 1983 I ventured out of North America for the first time, moving to the UK to take up an academic post in the Cognitive Studies Programme at the University of Sussex. I was warmly welcomed to this strange, new country by Maggie Boden who generously invited me to stay in her house in central Brighton until I found a place of my own. For the next three years I had the privilege of being Maggie's colleague.
Maggie was an academic's academic, which now seems to be an endangered species. She was always eager to talk about her latest intellectual pursuit and whatever book she was writing at the time. She had a big, effervescent personality and always wore a vivid–usually purple–dress that matched her personality.
To this day Sussex remains a major centre for cognitive science and her fingerprints are all over their programmes of teaching and research.
I will always remember her with fondness, gratitude and respect.
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