OpenTube

Iain McGilchrist: The Coincidence of Opposites

Ralston College

235,326 views

Ralston College presents a lecture by Dr Iain McGilchrist followed by a discussion with Dr Stephen Blackwood and questions from the audience. In his lecture Dr McGilchrist deals with certain themes that are treated at greater length in his recent book The Matter With Things. He focuses especially upon the coincidence of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum), which he explores (providing an extraordinary range of illustrative examples) in such a way as to make manifest both its universality and its particular relevance to our present historical moment.

The event took place online on October 26th, 2021.

Artists, Art, and Writings Mentioned in this Episode

Iroquoian Cosmology
Charles Sanders Peirce
Niehls Bohr
Friedrich Hölderlin
Goethe
Heraclitus
Alan Watts
Upanishads
William Blake
Jacob Needleman
Hegel
Alfred North Whitehead
M.C. Escher, “Angels and Devils”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ryōan-ji Zen Garden
Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Carl Jung
Ochwiay Biano
William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence”
Sam Johnson
Laurence Sterne
William Wordsworth
David Olive (physicist)
William Empson
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Joseph Campbell
Empedocles
F.W.J von Schelling
Kabbalah
Aristotle, concept of “phronesis”
Louis Pasteur
Pierre Curie
William James
Wilfred Owen, “Strange Meeting”
Jonathan Sacks
Franz Schubert, String Quartet in C Major
The Sophists
Protagoras
Immoderate Greatness, William Ophuls
Oedipus Rex
Jesus, “The Lord’s Prayer”

Links of possible interest:

Channel McGilchrist
https://channelmcgilchrist.com/

The Matter With Things (soon available elsewhere)
https://www.bookdepository.com/Matter...
https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Things-...

Ralston College
https://www.ralston.ac

– Chapters —

00:00 Introduction by Stephen Blackwood
05:30 Iain McGilchrist’s New Book: The Matter With Things
05:41 Opposites Are Not as Irreconcilable as They Might Seem
07:06 Three Quotations From a Philosopher (C. S. Peirce), a Physicist (Niels Bohr) and a Poet (Friedrich Hölderlin)
09:45 The Two Hemispheres of the Brain Cooperate Through Opposition
11:00 The Iroquois Legend: Two Brothers as an Analogy of the Brain Hemispheres
11:58 Energy and the Coming Together of Opposites in Nature
12:42 The Yin-Yang Symbol: The Best Known Expression of the Idea of Complementary Opposites
13:43 All is One and All is Many
14:37 Goethe on Unity and Division
15:46 Heraclitus: The Bow and the Lyre as Images of Harmony Through Tension
17:08 The Three Ancient Meanings of Harmony
17:55 Heraclitus’ Notion of Grasping (Syllapsies): Insight and Gathering Together
20:25 Wave-Particle Duality
20:46 Nesting of Opposites in Nature
21:35 Opposites as Mutually-Sustaining, Inseparable and Intertwined
22:00 The Corpus Callosum: Connection and Separation, Bridge and Boundary
22:57 The Creative Power of Resistance
24:09 William Blake: Contraries as Necessary for Human Existence
24:30 Needleman, Hegel and Whitehead: Opposing Truths and Reconciliation
25:39 Opposites Co-Exist, Give Rise to and Fulfil One Another
26:32 Complementarity as Foundational to Physics, Morality and Spirituality
27:47 Cultural and Societal Paradoxes
30:21 Hormesis: Small Amounts of Stress as Conducive to Growth
31:18 Context Matters
33:36 Objectivity as Seeing as Many Points of View as Possible
35:05 The Dangers of Neglecting the Dark Side
36:06 Friedensreich Hundertwasser and the Tyranny of Straight Lines
38:03 Focus and Exclusion
39:23 Reflections on Perfect Linearity and the Structure of Reality
39:31 William Blake’s Idea: There Must be Sorrow in Heaven if There is Joy
40:00 Perfection Can Constitute a Flaw
41:04 The Edge of Chaos: The Co-Existence of Order with Disorder
41:42 The Necessity of Opposites at Every Level
43:01 Joseph Campbell’s Three States of Being as Summary of the Relationship Between the Brain Hemispheres
44:17 Yellowstone Wolves and the Flourishing of the Ecosphere: Evil Predator as Key to Life
45:27 Spirals Image Both Circularity and Linearity
46:18 Empedocles: Love and Strife
46:51 Schelling: The Conjunction of the One and the Many
49:47 The Kabbalah’s Understanding of the Mind Shares Similarities with the Brain Hemisphere Hypothesis
51:12 Opposites and Cyclical Returns
51:52 Asymmetry at the Heart of the Coincidentia Oppositorum
52:56 Asymmetry Between Symmetry and Asymmetry: Asymmetry is More Important
54:00 Pasteur on Life as a Function of Cosmic Asymmetry
54:50 Pierre Curie on Asymmetry
55:24 Asymmetrical Arrangement of Brain Hemispheres
56:15 William James’ Insight: Opposites Melted into Unity
57:05 Movement and Rhythm of Biological Processes Are Not Entirely Regular
58:52 The Use of Half-Rhyme in Wilfred Owen’s Poem “Strange Meeting”
59:57 McGilchrist’s Summary of the Arguments
1:02:18 Final Words: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ Story
1:03:24 Thanks from Stephen Blackwood
1:04:43 Forthcoming Release of McGilchrist’s New Book: The Matter With Things
1:05:08 Q&A

20 Comments

@RalstonCollegeSavannah Creator 3 years ago Pinned

Applications for Ralston College's MA in the Humanities for 2023 are now open: https://www.ralston.ac/humanities-ma

@zadasorrell7191 4 years ago

I am a 45 year old pastry chef, doula, housewife, not a serious student of Hegel and Heidegger. I have been near tears for much of this lecture. One thing that comes to mind is something I have told my children when they are really getting on my nerves and I have responded angrily and must apologize: What drives me most crazy about you is also the thing I most admire in you. My daughter is intuitive or overly sensitive. My son is creative, effective or disaster making/annoying. It was a wonderful thing to realize about people in general. McGilchrist and Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Pageau and others like them are truly shining beacons in our dark times.

@hawkarae 4 years ago (edited)

Before I've even listened I am grateful that synchronicity ALWAYS provides the next bread crumb on my journey back to self. Thank you for sharing this conversation!
Wow. Has anyone ever spoken truer, more prescient words?

@garrettbryan2717 4 years ago

This so good. You know when you have been thinking and struggling with ideas and then a smart person talks and everything becomes clear and illuminated? That just happened to me.

@vaishalivaidya7978 4 years ago

This is one of the most profound lectures...We need more instutions and academia that can talk and enable this kind of thinking...

@behnaz5097 4 years ago

Oh ...i was in such a dark place ,when i start listening to you ,and suddenly all darkness melted away and i remembered that life is always like this ,up and down ,love and and hate,so it is all for growth, no matter what. Thank you,thank you for reminding me the purpose of life....thank you

@MESODOXA 3 years ago

This is easily - and certainly - the most beautiful lecture to which I've listened. I love and i am moved deeply by the unabashed sincerity, the grace and disposition toward human value and beauty, which roils sweetly through McGilchrist's every word. .

@CraigEsbeck 1 year ago

I return to this lecture once or twice a year when life gets especially challenging. I'm here again. It's the early morning of November 6, 2024 and I'm struggling to make sense of the what's happening in the world. Listening to Dr. McGilchrist helps me to get out of bed and meet the day.

@austinlaswell8143 4 years ago

I made the same analogy about the opposite states of physics. I both understand and do not understand the pattern of opposites which is the pattern within the pattern. Made me laugh when I thought about it. The Divine Comedy.

@wendyg8536 4 years ago (edited)

After setting out to find a podcast to listen to while I set about weaving some flax, it was such a beautiful surprise to hear this talk, as I pulled and pushed opposites within the weaving, uniting black and white strands together.
Your conversation Iain has been warming to the heart and hands.... thank you.

It would be great to hear of your explaination of the Hieros Gamos, in light of a follow on from this conversation, please.

@finnmacdiarmid3250 3 years ago

A scholar and an incredible orator! Few people speak English this well and functionally oriented anymore these days. With great ideas must come great capability to express them.

@MsDamosmum 4 years ago

Listening is something I do a lot of. I’ve listened to all kinds of podcasts on a daily basis (which I can do as I work with my hands) and I’ve been doing so for the past 6 or 7 years.

@LS-qu7yc 4 years ago (edited)

I have listened to this man for hours and hours… the 27 hour audio book and numerous 2+ hour podcasts and lectures. I am always better off every single time. Iain’s work has helped my mental health tremendously and I am so so grateful. He has explained our collective situation in ways my right brain could not make sense of. I love him. I can’t wait to read the new book!

@kimfreeborn 4 years ago

A point, a line and a circle are all a matter of perspective.

@Katia-Trost 4 years ago

Awesome lecture– Iain McGilchrist has a very rare talent of understanding integration.

@charmewithcem4830 4 years ago

A rich lecture which goes against the grain of predominant academic thought. A small step towards a more whole world.

@bobpowers9637 4 years ago

Epic lecture and answers.
What a joy to experience this.
In an age when polarization and technology controls us we need to be grounded in clues offered in nature, reason gained through history and attempting to gain many truths through as many perspectives as possible.

@missshroom5512 3 years ago (edited)

I wish my Mom could have seen this. She always said her and I were like water and oil and we did not mix. Unfortunately it took me having raised my own children and the different stages in my life to understand her ……put down….as I seen it then. Wish I had understood we were meant to be different and that’s not bad. I love all of your work Iain ..Thankyou 👍🏼🌎💙