Michał Heller

{{Short description|Polish philosopher, cosmologist, Roman Catholic presbyter, awarded Templeton Prize}}

{{Infobox philosopher

| name = Michał Heller

| honorific_prefix = The Reverend

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| image = Michal Heller by Adam Walanus (53).jpg

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| caption = Heller in 2016

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1936|3|12|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Tarnów

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| occupation = Philosopher, theoretical physicist

| language =

| nationality = Polish

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| alma_mater = Catholic University of Lublin

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| awards = Templeton Prize (2008)
Order of Polonia Restituta (2009)
Order of the White Eagle (2014)

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|influences={{flatlist|

}}|influenced=Józef Życiński|region=Western philosophy

Polish philosophy|main_interests={{flatlist|
History of science
Philosophy of science
Theology
Theoretical physics
General relativity

}}|era=20th-century philosophy
21st-century philosophy|school_tradition=Thomism}}

Michał Kazimierz Heller (born 12 March 1936) is a Polish philosopher, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, theologian, and Catholic priest. He is a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, Poland, and an adjunct member of the Vatican Observatory staff.

He also serves as a lecturer in the philosophy of science and logic at the Theological Institute in Tarnów. A Catholic priest belonging to the Diocese of Tarnów, Heller was ordained in 1959. In 2008, he received the Templeton Prize for his works in the field of philosophy.

Career

Michał Heller attended high school in Mościce, graduated from the Catholic University of Lublin, where he earned a master's degree in philosophy in 1965 and a Ph.D. in cosmology in 1966.{{Cite web |url=http://www.obi.opoka.org/heller/mhWszolekEN.pdf |title=Reverend Professor Michael Heller. His Life and Philosophy |access-date=22 March 2023}}

After beginning his teaching career at Tarnów, 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 the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and a visiting scientist at Belgium's University of Liège, the University of Oxford, the University of Leicester, Ruhr University in Germany, The Catholic University of America, and the University of Arizona among others.{{cite book |last=Heller |first=Michał |author-link= |date=2016 |title=Wierzę, żeby zrozumieć. Rozmawiają Wojciech Bonowicz, Bartosz Brożek, Zbigniew Liana |url= |location=Kraków |publisher=CC Press, Znak |page=22 |isbn=978-83-2403-402-4}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.naukawpolsce.pap.pl/aktualnosci/news,358449,ks-prof-michal-heller-doktorem-honoris-causa-uksw.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141105194523/http://www.naukawpolsce.pap.pl/aktualnosci/news,358449,ks-prof-michal-heller-doktorem-honoris-causa-uksw.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-11-05 |language=pl |title=Ks. prof. Michał Heller doktorem honoris causa UKSW |date=26 January 2009 |access-date=22 March 2023}}

His research is concerned with the singularity problem in general relativity and the use of noncommutative geometry in seeking the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics into quantum gravity.{{Cite web |url=https://www.faraday.cam.ac.uk/about/people/prof-michal-heller/ |title=Prof. Michal Heller |website=faraday.cam.ac.uk |date=20 February 2020 |access-date=22 March 2023}}

Awards

= Templeton Prize=

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".[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/science/12cnd-prize.html?hp Million-Dollar Prize Given to Cosmologist Priest] On receiving the Templeton Prize, Heller said:

{{Blockquote|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.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080509101541/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3540989.ece Professor wins prize for maths link to God]}}

Heller used the prize money to establish the Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies – an institute named after Nicholas Copernicus aimed at research and popularisation of science and philosophy.{{Cite web |url=https://polishscience.pl/en/rev-prof-michal-heller-becomes-the-laureate-of-the-erazm-and-anna-jerzmanowski-award/ |title=Rev. Prof. Michał Heller becomes the laureate of the Erazm and Anna Jerzmanowski Award |website=polishscience.pl |date=16 December 2022 |access-date=22 March 2023}} He also serves as director of the annual Copernicus Festival held in Kraków.{{Cite web |url=https://www.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/autor/ks-michal-heller-900 |language=pl |title=KS. MICHAŁ HELLER |website=tygodnikpowszechny.pl |access-date=22 March 2023}}

= Other distinctions =

Honorary degrees from:

AGH University of Science and Technology (1996){{Cite web |url=https://historia.agh.edu.pl/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Kazimierz_Heller |language=pl |title=Michał Kazimierz Heller |website=agh.edu.pl |access-date=22 March 2023}}
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw (2009){{Cite web |url=https://historia.agh.edu.pl/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Kazimierz_Heller |language=pl |title=Michał Kazimierz Heller |website=agh.edu.pl |access-date=22 March 2023}}
University of Life Sciences in Poznań (2010){{Cite web |url=http://naukawpolsce.pap.pl/aktualnosci/news,377703,prof-heller-doktorem-honorowym-uniwersytetu-przyrodniczego-w-poznaniu.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20151113170038/http://naukawpolsce.pap.pl/aktualnosci/news,377703,prof-heller-doktorem-honorowym-uniwersytetu-przyrodniczego-w-poznaniu.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2015-11-13 |language=pl |title=Prof. Heller doktorem honorowym Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczego w Poznaniu |access-date=22 March 2023}}
Warsaw University of Technology (2012)
Jagiellonian University (2012){{Cite web |url=https://www.uj.edu.pl/wiadomosci/-/journal_content/56_INSTANCE_d82lKZvhit4m/10172/5279908 |language=pl |title=Ks. prof. Michał Heller otrzyma godność doktora honoris causa Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego |website=uj.edu.pl |access-date=22 March 2023}}
University of Life Sciences in Lublin (2014)
University of Silesia in Katowice (2015){{Cite web |url=https://www.us.edu.pl/uroczystosc-nadania-tytulu-doctora-honoris-causa-us-prof-michalowi-hellerowi |language=pl |title=Uroczystość nadania tytułu doctora honoris causa UŚ prof. Michałowi Hellerowi |date=10 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307082350/https://www.us.edu.pl/uroczystosc-nadania-tytulu-doctora-honoris-causa-us-prof-michalowi-hellerowi |access-date=22 March 2023|archive-date=2018-03-07 }}
Pontifical University of John Paul II (2016){{Cite web |url=http://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/ks-prof-michal-heller-doktorem-honoris-causa-uniwersytetu-papieskiego-jana-pawla-ii |language=pl |title=Ks. prof. Michał Heller doktorem honoris causa Uniwersytetu Papieskiego Jana Pawła II |date=22 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623140654/http://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/ks-prof-michal-heller-doktorem-honoris-causa-uniwersytetu-papieskiego-jana-pawla-ii |access-date=22 March 2023|archive-date=2016-06-23 }}
Rzeszów University of Technology (2018){{Cite web |url=https://rzeszow.wyborcza.pl/rzeszow/7,34962,24845193,ks-prof-michal-heller-doktorem-honoris-causa-politechniki.html |language=pl |title=Ks. prof. Michał Heller doktorem honoris causa Politechniki Rzeszowskiej [ZDJĘCIA] |website=wyborcza.pl |date=30 May 2019 |access-date=22 March 2023}}

Other distinctions:

Cross of Merit (Poland) (2006){{Cite web |url=https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WMP20070210241 |language=pl |title=M.P. 2007 nr 21 poz. 241 |website=isap.sejm.gov.pl |access-date=22 March 2023}}
Order of Polonia Restituta (2009){{Cite web |url=https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WMP20090300432 |language=pl |title=M.P. 2009 nr 30 poz. 432 |website=isap.sejm.gov.pl |access-date=22 March 2023}}
Order of the White Eagle (Poland) (2014){{Cite web |url=https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WMP20140000696 |language=pl |title=M.P. 2014 poz. 696 |website=isap.sejm.gov.pl |access-date=22 March 2023}}

Memberships

= Books – Physics and Cosmology =

The Science of Space-Time, with Derek Jeffrey Raine, Pachart Publishing House, Tucson 1981, {{ISBN|09-1291-812-8}}
Encountering the Universe, Pachart Publishing House, Tucson 1982, {{ISBN|09-1291-807-1}}
Questions to the Universe – Ten Lectures on the Foundations of Physics and Cosmology, Pachart Publishing House, Tucson 1986, {{ISBN|08-8126-008-8}}
Theoretical Foundations of Cosmology – Introduction to the Global Structure of Space-Time, World Scientific, Singapore–London 1992, {{ISBN|978-98-1020-756-4}}
Lemaître, Big Bang and the Quantum Universe, Pachart, Tucson 1996, {{ISBN|978-08-8126-285-8}}
Some Mathematical Physics for Philosophers, Pontifical Council for Culture, Pontifical Gregorian University, Vatican City–Rome 2005, {{ISBN|978-88-2097-724-5}}
Ultimate explanations of the universe, transl. by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa, Springer, 2009, {{ISBN|978-36-4202-102-2}}

= Books – Philosophy and Theology =

The World and the Word – Between Science and Religion, Pachart Publishing House, Tucson 1986, {{ISBN|978-08-8126-724-2}}
The New Physics and a New Theology, transl. by G. V. Coyne, T.M. Sierotowicz, Vatican Observatory Publications 1996, {{ISBN|02-6801-479-5}}
Creative Tension. Essays on Science & Religion, Templeton Foundation Press, Philadelphia–London 2003, {{ISBN|19-3203-134-0}}
A Comprehensible Universe. The Interplay of Science and Theology, with George Coyne, Springer, New York 2008, {{ISBN|978-35-4077-624-6}}, {{ISBN|978-36-4209-637-2}}
The Sense of Life and the Sense of the Universe, Copernicus Center Press, Cracow 2010, {{ISBN|978-83-6225-902-1}}
Philosophy in Science: An Historical Introduction, Springer, 2011, {{ISBN|978-36-4217-704-0}}
Philosophy of Chance. A cosmic fugue with a prelude and a coda, Copernicus Center Press, Cracow 2012, {{ISBN|978-83-7886-000-6}}

= Articles =

The Origins of Time, in: The Study of Time IV, ed. by J.T. Fraser, N. Lawrence, D. Park, Springer Verlag, New York–Heidelberg–Berlin 1981, pp. 90–93, {{ISBN|03-8790-594-4}}
Algebraic Self-Duality as the "Ultimate Explanation", Foundations of Science, 9, 2004, pp. 369–385

References

External links

[http://www.obi.opoka.org/heller/ Michał Heller's homepage]
[http://www.obi.opoka.org/heller/mhWszolekEN.pdf An article by Stanislaw Wszołek about Heller's life and philosophy]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040318002502/http://www.templeton.org/humbleapproach/far_future/ THE FAR-FUTURE UNIVERSE]"Eschatology From A Cosmic Perspective" : Heller was a participant in this conference held November 7–9, 2000 in Rome, Italy
[http://www.casinapioiv.va/content/accademia/en/academicians/ordinary/heller.html Biography and selected articles at Papal Academy of Sciences]
[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michal-Heller Biography at Britannica Online]
{{YouTube|8sCHt-qUKt0|Polish Scientist and Priest Wins Templeton Prize}}
[https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/2008/documents/rc_seg-st_20080430_templeton-prize_en.html Message to Monsignor Michał Heller, winner of the Templeton Prize]
[https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13454-qa-2008-templeton-prize-winner.html New Scientist interview]