Zenith Grant Awardee

Dean Rickles

University of Sydney

Project Title

Radical Conservative: A Biography of John Archibald Wheeler

Project Summary

Agency was at the heart of John Wheeler's work, especially in his later years where it was explicitly embodied in the concept of the "observer-participant" (now undergoing a renaissance in physics). He sought to base a theory of existence itself on it through his idea of a "self-excited circuit," thus putting agency at the heart of it all. This project will trace the development of his ideas, including the emergence of this deeper level of thinking about reality, by writing the first ever biography of the man and his work (to be entitled "Radical Conservative: A Biography of John Archibald Wheeler"). The book will be about a hyperactive scientist's quest to understand the meaning of existence ("the whole show"), with life and mind centre stage.

Technical Abstract

Agency was at the heart of John Wheeler's work, especially in his later years where it was explicitly embodied in the concept of the "observer-participant" (now undergoing a renaissance in physics). He sought to base a theory of existence itself on it through his idea of a "self-excited circuit," thus putting agency at the heart of it all. This project will trace the development of Wheeler's ideas, including the emergence of this deeper level of thinking about reality, by writing the first ever biography of the man and his work (to be entitled "Radical Conservative: A Biography of John Archibald Wheeler"). The book will be about a hyperactive scientist's quest to understand the meaning of existence ("the whole show"), with life and mind centre stage. The absence of a serious, scholarly biography of Wheeler marks a curious and unacceptable gap. Wheeler deserves to be far better known: his imprint can be found all over modern physics, including his lesser known influence, no less important, behind the scenes. No matter how crazy his ideas seemed initially, they always seem to come out right. We will see that his life is as rich and complex as his ideas in physics.