The Sophia Lectures With Dr Iain McGilchrist - Lecture 3: Finitude and the Infinite

Dr Iain McGilchrist delivers "Finitude and the Infinite", the final lecture in his three-part series, Wholeness, Imagination, and the Cosmos. This illuminating talk reimagines infinity not as a distant abstraction but as an omnipresent reality woven into the fabric of existence. Exploring the interplay between the finite and the infinite, Dr McGilchrist reveals the profound role of imagination in bridging boundaries and unlocking the relational nature of being. Drawing on philosophy, art, and science, this lecture invites us to reconsider our place in a cosmos both intimate and vast. Recorded in March 2024 as part of the Sophia Lectures at Ralston College’s Savannah campus, this annual series features leading thinkers engaging with the perennial questions of human existence. Subscribe for the latest updates at www.ralston.ac/subscribe. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: William Wordsworth - Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Biographia Literaria Percy Bysshe Shelley - A Defence of Poetry Max Scheler William Blake Richard Feynman James A. Shapiro Denis Diderot Barbara McClintock William James Albert Einstein Leonhard Euler William Wilson Morgan Richard Feynman The Ancient of Days (William Blake, 1794, watercolor etching) Nicholas of Cusa - De Docta Ignorantia Jason Padgett Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Galileo Galilei David Hilbert Henri Bergson Richard Wagner Isaac Luria - Lurianic Kabbalah Edward Nelson Alfred North Whitehead Eugène Minkowski Heraclitus Jordan Peterson Zeno of Elea John Milton John Keats Jorge Luis Borges Martin Heidegger Tao-te Ching William Blake - “The Tyger” Emily Dickinson Marianne Moore Robert Browning - “Two in the Campagna” Bhagavad Gita Peter Cook John Polkinghorne Mary Midgley René Descartes Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling J. B. S. Haldane Lee Smolin Eugene Koonin Hildegard of Bingen - The Choirs of Angels Christ Pantocrator and Signs of the Zodiac C. S. Lewis Johannes Kepler Jesus Links of Possible Interest: AI World Summit 2022 Dr Iain McGilchrist on Artificial Intelligence and The Matter with Things https://youtube.com/watch?v=XgbUCKWCMPA Timeline: 0:37 - Introduction by Dr. Stephen Blackwood 4:05 - Dr Iain McGilchrist’s lecture begins 4:59 - The Nature of Imagination 21:44 - Approaching Infinity 28:55 - Different Types of Infinity: Finished versus Processual 33:54 - Motion versus Stasis 39:26 - Transcendence versus Immanence 42:11 - Infinity Not an Amount 47:22 - Infinity a Quality? 53:36 - Awe, Love and Infinity 1:00:42 - Reconciliation Through Imagination 1:02:05 - Seeing Through the Finite and the Role of the Imagination 1:05:33 - Who Are We? 1:18:03 - Q&A