Ultimate Explanations of the Universe

by Michael Heller

We humans are collectively driven by a powerful - yet not fully explained - instinct to understand. We would like to see everything established, proven, laid bare. The more important an issue, the more we desire to see it clarified, stripped of all secrets, all shades of gray. What could be more important than to understand the Universe and ourselves as a part of it? To find a window onto our origin and our destiny? This book examines how far our modern cosmological theories - with their sometimes audacious models, such as inflation, cyclic histories, quantum creation, parallel universes - can take us towards answering these questions. Can such theories lead us to ultimate truths, leaving nothing unexplained? Last, but not least, Heller addresses the thorny problem of why and whether we should expect to find theories with all-encompassing explicative power.

Genres: Science

228 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Michał Kazimierz Heller 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.

Dr. Heller was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1959. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in March, 2008.

Reviews

[Jonathan Belle]

Synopsis: Michael Heller, professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, Poland, and an adjunct member of the Vatican Observatory staff, surveys the landscape of contemporary physics and philosophy in search of the ultimate explanation, the explanation that explains itself and everything else.

Heller is fair in his analysis, clear in his exposition, and rigorous in his logic. Some sections are more difficult to track than others; background in physics is probably helpful here. As with many other Springer titles, this book is not for general audiences. Still, this is a lovely overview of the contemporary state of the Leibnizian problem of there being anything at all.