On the nature and usefulness of creativity - Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer

This is the annotated and extended text of the 52nd Huizinga lecture that writer and poet Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer delivered on Friday evening, December 8, 2023, in the Pieterskerk in Leiden.

In his lecture, entitled 'On the nature and usefulness of creativity', Pfeijffer analyzes the elusive concept of creativity, raising the question to what extent artificial intelligence can sharpen or change our ideas about creativity. He identifies creativity as the quintessence of the search for truth that is, or at least should be, the goal of both art and science, reporting on how he came closer to the truth in his historical novel Alkibiades than any scientist ever could.

Writer and poet Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (1968) studied classical languages ​​at Leiden University, and obtained her PhD at the same university on the archaic Greek poet Pindarus. He then worked there as a teacher and researcher. In 2004 he gave up his permanent position to make a living from his pen, after which he received many prizes.

The book has 80 pages, including index.