Mathematical Models beyond Space and Time. Michael Heller reflects on the ‘big questions’ of cosmology

Abstract

The winner of the Templeton Prize 2008 was announced during a press conference at the United Nations’ Church Centre in New York on 17 March this year. The Prize was awarded to Michael Heller for his work over more than forty years and his shrewd and often surprising insights regarding our concepts of the origin and cause of the universe. Heller is a professor of philosophy, although he trained in the fields of mathematics, physics and cosmology, as well as in philosophy and theology. His contributions pertain, in many senses, strictly to the field of physics, although they are theoretical rather than experimental. Indeed, they are more proposals of speculative mathematical-formal models and have been published in many prestigious international physics journals. But the heart of Heller’s concerns always points towards the philosophy or metaphysics of the universe, where the fundaments of reality relate the ontological roots of the universe to the ontology of the Divinity and the act of creation. One may or may not agree with Heller’s speculations, may view them as more or less plausible and consider their formal construction to be either laudable or poor, but anyone who reads his work cannot help but gain the impression of following the arguments and affirmations of an extraordinarily well-informed, precise and deep-thinking physicist-philosopher.