John Wheeler

When I was in graduate school, one of the most interesting textbooks in my field was Gravitation, by Misner, Thorne and Wheeler (commonly referred to as "MTW"). John Archibald Wheeler had a very unique way of looking at physics and the world, and his thoughts and teaching style permeate this book. To me and to many of my physics colleagues, John Wheeler is the teacher of the generation of teachers that taught us. His students and postdocs included Richard Feynmann, Charles Misner, Kip Thorne, and my advisor, James York.

When I first started reading Gravitation, I was amazed at the level of mysticism displayed by both Wheeler's presentations and by the historical figures that he presented. The book includes sidebars containing quotes from famous historical figures. Last winter, I had the opportunity to review some of these materials in preparation for a class about science and theological thinking. Needless to say, MTW played an important role in this preparation. Here are a few of the quotations I gleaned from the text and used in the class:

“For who, after applying himself to things which he sees established in the best order and directed by divine ruling, would not through diligent contemplation of them and through a certain habituation be awakened to that which is best and would not wonder at the Artificer of all things, in Whom is all happiness and every good? For the divine Psalmist surely did not say gratuitously that he took pleasure in the workings of God and rejoiced in the works of His hands, unless by means of these things as by some sort of vehicle we are transported to the contemplation of the highest Good.” -- Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543.

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” -- Galileo Galilei

“Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe.” -- Galileo Galilei

“He is not eternity or infinity, but eternal and infinite. He is not duration or space, but He endures and is present. He endures forever, and is everywhere present, and by existing always and everywhere, He constitutes duration and space... And thus much concerning God, to discourse of whom from the appearances of things, does certainly belong to natural philosophy.” -- Isaac Newton, 1687

John Archibald Wheeler died on April 13. Rest in peace, teacher of teachers.