The Cosmic Imagination

Twentieth-century science was turned on its head by the discoveries of relativity and quantum physics. But what if you were told those discoveries weren’t uniquely the product of the field of physics, but also sprang from centuries of efforts by artists, mystics, and thinkers to probe the extremes of human knowledge and challenge our very conception of reality? In a lecture studded with gorgeous images from both art history and modern cosmology, Professor Egginton tells the sweeping story of the poets, physicists, and philosophers who upended our most basic notions of what is real. His talk will deal with the problems of time and space on a cosmic and microcosmic scale, spanning from quantum fluctuations to the curvature of the cosmos. The collection of great thinkers he’ll touch upon includes Plato, Kant, Dante, Borges, Einstein, and Heisenberg, among others.