Linda Zagzebski – The Two Greatest Ideas: Grasping the Universe and our own Minds. 28 June 2023

Professor Linda Zagzebski presents the salient themes of her book, The Two Greatest Ideas: How our grasp of the universe and our minds changed everything (2021) with clarity, simplicity, and potency—despite a gremlin in transmission, which renders her invisible behind her slides until question time.

As major religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, and Judaism evolve during the first millennium bce, humankind seeks what is universal, how our mind can grasp the universe, and how the human soul can unite with the divine. Greek philosophers connect metaphysics, natural science, mathematics, musical theory, and spiritual vision. Jewish prophets address the one God, align with the divine will, and develop ideas of universal physical and moral law that evolve in Christian Europe into modern science and international law. This first great idea holds sway over medieval craftsmen of Catholic cathedrals and writers of Orthodox icons, whose artistic endeavour is inspired by the higher power who created them.

The subjective consciousness of the second great idea arises during the Renaissance to overthrow the authority of the first. With Reformation, plague, and Copernican revolution, artists discover perspective, novelists create characters who are personalities—not just types—and the first idea is reduced to empirical science, leading to disenchantment. In the 21st century, we are at a crossroads. With the first two great ideas disconnected, we seek a third great idea to counter polarisation, express empathy, and develop our understanding of inter-subjectivity. Zagzebski provides a framework on which to build our greater consciousness.

Report by Susan Lewis