The Cunning of Geist 061 - Is the Universe Cyclical? - The Big Bang, Penrose, & Hegel
Hegel saw the Absolute metaphorically as a "circle of circles" (SL, pg. 842, Miller trans.). He also said philosophy itself "forms a circle" (PR, Wood, ed., Nisbet trans., pg. 26, ¶2).
Yet religions sees a creation event in our past, and modern science has embraced the Big Bang as the beginning of it all. The universe is expanding and current theories show an eventual fizzle out into a "heat death." Nothing will survive. The end. Full stop.
Yet there is another scientific theory, proposed by Nobel prize winning physicist Roger Penrose, that suggests that this is all part of a cyclical process. From the "death" of the finite universe a state of "infinity" will be reached and a new Big Bang will emerge.
Any correspondence here to Hegel's circle? This episode explores.