The Sophia Lectures With Dr Iain McGilchrist - Lecture 2: Symmetry and Asymmetry

Dr Iain McGilchrist delivers “Symmetry and Asymmetry,” the second lecture in his three-part series, Wholeness, Imagination, and the Cosmos. This compelling talk examines the generative power of asymmetry, challenging our deeply ingrained notions of balance, perfection, and creation. Drawing on physics, mathematics, biology, and art, Dr McGilchrist reveals how asymmetry drives life and meaning, taking us to the edge of chaos where the most fruitful conditions for existence arise. 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 updates at www.ralston.ac/subscribe Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Johann Sebastian Bach John Donne - “Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth’s imagin’d corners” Gerard Manley Hopkins - “Carrion Comfort” Werner Heisenberg - Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations with Einstein, Planck, Dirac, Bohr, and Other Physicists of Our Time Alexander Pope - “The Rape of the Lock” Iain McGilchrist - The Master and his Emissary Pierre Curie Chien-Shiung Wu Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder Aesop Heraclitus Democritus Leonardo da Vinci Louis Pasteur Rong Li & Bruce Bowerman - “Symmetry breaking in biology” Arthur Koestler Aristotle Oliver Sacks Thomas Holstein Tim Crow Onur Güntürkün Jane Clark & Daniel Simons (Christopher Chabris) - Gorillas in Our Midst Jonathan Rowson Alastair McIntosh Richard Dawkins Nikolaj Nikolaenko Luciano Laurana Giorgio Martini - Ideal City Raphael - The School of Athens Andrea Palladio William Blake - “The Tyger” Theodosius II Christ Pantocrator Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel John P. McGovern William Osler William Alwyn Lishman William Shakespeare - King Lear John Cleese Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sir Roger Scruton Links of Possible Interest: https://www.winchestercollege.org/ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Winchester-College First Principles and Second Sight, with Iain McGilchrist & Alastair McIntosh - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2UXkiU0oGU Timeline: 0:35 - Introduction by Dr. Stephen Blackwood 6:11 - Dr Iain McGilchrist’s lecture begins 10:08 - Limit Cases 11:41 - The Nature of Symmetry 18:17 - Asymmetry and Existence 27:53 - Asymmetry and Life 56:12 - Asymmetry, aesthetics, and ontology 1:14:21 - Asymmetry as the locus classicus of difference within sameness and vice versa 1:16:12 - Q&A