Michał Heller | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Heller in 2016 | |
| Born | (1936-03-12)12 March 1936 (age 89) |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Occupation(s) | Philosopher,theoretical physicist |
| Awards | Templeton Prize (2008) Order of Polonia Restituta (2009) Order of the White Eagle (2014) |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | Catholic University of Lublin |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy 21st-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Thomism |
| Main interests | |
Michał Kazimierz Heller (born 12 March 1936), also known asMichael Heller, is a Polishphilosopher,theoretical physicist,cosmologist,theologian, andCatholic priest. He is a professor of philosophy at thePontifical University of John Paul II inKraków, Poland, and an adjunct member of theVatican Observatory staff.
He also serves as a lecturer in thephilosophy of science andlogic at the Theological Institute inTarnów. A Catholic priest belonging to theDiocese of Tarnów, Heller was ordained in 1959. In 2008, he received theTempleton Prize for his works in the field of philosophy.
Michał Heller attendedhigh school inMościce, graduated from theCatholic University of Lublin, where he earned a master's degree in philosophy in 1965 and a Ph.D. incosmology in 1966.[1]
After beginning his teaching career atTarnów, he joined the faculty of the Pontifical Academy of Theology in 1972 and was appointed to a full professorship in 1985. He has been a visiting professor at theCatholic University of Louvain inBelgium and a visiting scientist at Belgium'sUniversity of Liège, theUniversity of Oxford, theUniversity of Leicester,Ruhr University in Germany,The Catholic University of America, and theUniversity of Arizona among others.[2][3]
His research is concerned with thesingularity problem ingeneral relativity and the use ofnoncommutative geometry in seeking the unification ofgeneral relativity andquantum mechanics intoquantum gravity.[4]
In March 2008, Heller was awarded the $1.6 million (£820,000)Templeton Prize for his extensive philosophical and scientific probing of "big questions". His works have sought to reconcile the "known scientific world with the unknowable dimensions of God".[5] On receiving the Templeton Prize, Heller said:
If we ask about the cause of the universe we should ask about the cause of mathematical laws. By doing so we are back in the great blueprint of God's thinking about the universe; the question on ultimate causality: why is there something rather than nothing?
When asking this question, we are not asking about a cause like all other causes. We are asking about the root of all possible causes.
Science is but a collective effort of the human mind to read the mind of God from question marks out of which we and the world around us seem to be made.[6]
Heller used the prize money to establish the Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies – an institute named afterNicholas Copernicus aimed at research andpopularisation of science and philosophy.[7] He also serves as director of the annualCopernicus Festival held in Kraków.[8]
Honorary degrees from:
Other distinctions:
Michael Heller has published nearly 200 scientific papers, not only ingeneral relativity and relativisticcosmology, but also inphilosophy,history of science andtheology.[19] He authored more than 50 books. In his volume,Is Physics an Art? (Biblos, 1998), he writes aboutmathematics as the language of science and also explores suchhumanistic issues asbeauty as a criterion oftruth,creativity, andtranscendence.[citation needed]
