Stanley Jaki

Reverend Father Stanley L. Jaki O.S.B. in 2007.

Stanley L. Jaki, OSB (August 17, 1924 in Győr, Hungary – April 7, 2009 in Madrid, Spain)[1][2] was a Hungarian-born priest of the Benedictine order. From 1975 to his death, he was Distinguished University Professor at Seton Hall University, in South Orange, New Jersey. He held doctorates in theology and in physics and was a leading contributor to the philosophy of science and the history of science, particularly to their relationship to Christianity.

Studies

After completing undergraduate training in philosophy, theology and mathematics, Jaki did graduate work in theology and physics and gained doctorates in theology from the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome (1950) and in physics from Fordham University (1958), where he studied under the Nobel laureate Victor Hess, the co-discoverer of cosmic rays. He also did post-doctoral research in Philosophy of Science at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Princeton University and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Research

Jaki authored more than two dozen books on the relation between modern science and orthodox Christianity. He was Fremantle Lecturer at Balliol College, Oxford (1977), Hoyt Fellow at Yale University (1980) and Farmington Institute Lecturer at Oxford University (1988–1989). He was the Gifford Lecturer at Edinburgh University in 1974–1975 and 1975–1976. In 1987, he was awarded the Templeton Prize for furthering understanding of science and religion.

He was among the first to claim that Gödel's incompleteness theorem is relevant for theories of everything (TOE) in theoretical physics.[3] Gödel's theorem states that any theory that includes certain basic facts of number theory and is computably enumerable will be either incomplete or inconsistent. Since any 'theory of everything' must be consistent, it also must be incomplete.

Death

Jaki died in Madrid following a heart attack. He was in Spain visiting friends, on his way back to the United States after delivering lectures in Rome, for the Master in Faith and Science of the Pontificio Ateneo Regina Apostolorum.[4]

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ Weber, Bruce (April 12, 2009). "The Rev. Stanley L. Jaki, Physicist and Theologian, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved April 13, 2009.
  2. ↑ http://www.shu.edu/news/article/152011
  3. ↑ Cf. Jaki's "A Late Awakening to Gödel in Physics"
  4. ↑ Death of Rev. Stanley L. Jaki, O.S.B.
  5. ↑ Flatté, Stanley M. (March 1968). "Review: Symmetries and Reflections by Eugene P. Wigner and The Relevance of Physics by Stanley Jacki". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: pp. 28–30.
  • "No Other Options". Stanely L. Jaki. JASA 24 (September 1972): 127. (Response to R.H.Bube's commentary.)
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