Dante and Cosmology

A lecture by William Egginton, Johns Hopkins University In the early twentieth century Albert Einstein discovered that time could stretch and space bend, and a multi-dimensional mathematics would eventually be needed to describe the cosmos that his physics predicted. In this lecture, Professor Egginton shows how, by confronting some of the greatest metaphysical problems of their day, Dante and the theologians and philosophers who inspired him anticipated Einstein’s insight in surprising and at times mind-bending ways. William Egginton is the Decker Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute. His research and teaching focus on Spanish and Latin American literature, literary theory, and the relation between literature and philosophy. Professor Egginton is the author of numerous books, including How the World Became a Stage (2003), Perversity and Ethics (2006), A Wrinkle in History (2007), The Philosopher’s Desire (2007), The Theater of Truth (2010), In