DOCSLIB.ORG

Albert Einstein, Cosmos and Religion

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Albert Einstein, Cosmos and Religion Serb. Astron. J. } 174 (2007), 61 - 72 UDC 524.8 DOI: 10.2298/SAJ0774061D Original scienti¯c paper ALBERT EINSTEIN, COSMOS AND RELIGION V. Dokovi¶c- 1 and P. Gruji¶c2 1Vin·caInstitute of Nuclear Sciences, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia 2Institute of Physics,11080 Belgrade, Serbia (Received: September 11, 2006; Accepted: December 27, 2006) SUMMARY: We consider Einstein's attitude regarding religious as such, from both cosmological and epistemological points of view. An attempt to put it into a wider socio-historical perspective was made, with the emphasis on ethnic and religious background. It turns out that the great scientist was neither atheist nor believer in the orthodox sense and the closest labels one might stick to him in this respect would be pantheism/cosmism (ontological aspect) and agnosticism (episte- mological aspect). His ideas on divine could be considered as a continuation of line traced by Philo of Alexandria, who himself followed Greek Stoics and (Neo-) Pla- tonists and especially Baruch Spinoza. It turns out that Einstein's both scienti¯c (rational aspects) and religious (intuitive aspects) thinking were deeply rooted in the Hellenic culture. His striving to unravel the secrets of the universe and the roots of cosmological order resembles much the ancient ideas of the role of knowledge in fathoming the divine as such, as ascribed to Gnostics. Key words. Cosmology: miscellaneous 1. INTRODUCTION damental concepts, like space, time, causality, put into standard frames of our contemplating the most elusive notions like faith, God(s) etc? We shall claim All science is cosmology, I believe. in the following that (i) Einstein was arguing for a Karl Popper new kind of religion and (ii) at the same time was As Einstein's annus mirabilis centenary playing a role, albeit subconsciously, of a prophet, evolved, the Number One personality of the previ- even a god himself. ous century became the focus of world's attention. Cosmology is intrinsically linked with mythol- Many aspects of his extraordinary personality were ogy and religion as a quasirational elaboration of the subjected to scrutinized analysis, including his rela- former. Einstein was the cosmologist par excellence, tion to religion. Although Einstein was not a pro- for it was him who made it a hard science. He was as fessional religious thinker, his fame and authority in well involved in the profound research of the under- pure science make his personal beliefs both interest- lying microstructure of the material world and has ing and influential. decisively contributed to our understanding of the Was Albert Einstein a religious man? But be- microcosm. In both aspects, presently strongly cou- fore we attempt to answer this question, another one pled in modern investigations of the ultimate nature seems in order: Is this a proper question at all? May of the material world, Einstein considered the possi- one expect from such a profound scienti¯c mind to ble role of divine, but with considerable e®orts made be analyzed in less profound terms? Particularly, in distinguishing the latter from banal religiosity. We could the mind that has transformed our most fun- shall consider his views of religious from both tempo- 61 V. DOKOVI- C¶ and P. GRUJIC¶ ral development point of view and their implications bound by covenant to his chosen people. This di- to his cosmological and epistemological views chotomy will be resolved by Christian teaching, what resulted in a quick spread of the Judaistic mythology over a large part of the globe. But apart from her 2. HELLENISM AND JUDAISM Christian "heresy" (minim) Judaistic common reli- gion retained its principal features up to now. We now turn to the more august religious When Albert was twelve a young student from sphere, that of thinkers and philosophers. Greek de- Poland, who used to come to Einsteins' for dinner, velopment on this more abstract level followed the brought to him a popular edition of Euclid's Ele- line of Xenophanes (Kirk et al. 1983), Plato and ments. It seems to have been a decisive instance Aristotle, who conceived an abstract deity, devoid of for the young boy, who was at the time obsessed by banal anthropic properties and disinterested in hu- the biblical fables. He must have already felt a suspi- man a®airs. To Aristotle the First Mover was nec- cion about the historical reality of biblical events and essary just to start the life of Nature, whose fur- the issue of the truth must have been raised in his ther history was to be governed by the laws of Na- mind, when he met Euclid. Unlike biblical authors ture, to be inferred by human mind. A particular who o®ered incredible fables and interpretations, Al- concept of supernatural Demiurge was conceived by bert found in Elements the absolute (mathematical) Anaxagoras (Kirk et al. 1983), who introduced the truth, exposed by an iron logic, ¯rm and undeniable. notion of Mind (Noυ&), engaged in creating Cosmos Incidentally, the treatise was composed in the same rd out of a primordial mixture of seeds (σ¼"½¹®¿®). period (3 century BC) as the translation of Holy It seems that Anaxagoras' Mind was something be- Scriptures (Septuagint) was made. Both books epit- tween moving agency and natural principle. In any omized the Judaistic and Hellenistic ideologies, as case this Greek philosophical line was interrupted by the paradigms of ¯ctitious and rational as such. The the Christian faith and was never canonized into a further intellectual development of the young Albert common religion. was determined by the interplay of his Jewish ethni- Judaistic tradition followed two main streams. cal origin and rational Hellenistic education. One was orthodox rabbinic one, mainly present to- Technically speaking, Einstein remained day within Jewish milieu, the other adopting an es- within the sphere of the Judaistic tradition. But oteric rout, developing somewhat extravagant ideas his personal development led him to depart from on divinity, as the case with Cabbala is. Extravagant the Orthodox Judaism, and this evolution resulted as they appear, some of the esoteric concepts resem- in two main accomplishments. First, his religious ble remarkably well modern cosmological scenarios of evolution started with the traditional common re- the World creation. The case in point is Cabbalistic ligion, as practiced by clergymen, to progressively constructs of Ain Soph and Zimzum (Masson 1970), abstract concept of piety, and second, he found in with its striking similarity to Big Bang inflationary retrospective that the mankind followed the same paradigm. The case of Baruch Spinoza stands some- route. One might consider this sort of individual where between the orthodox and esoteric lines and and historical correlation as another manifestation deserves our particular attention here. of the famous Hoeckel's thesis: Ontogeny is a reca- pitulation of phylogeny. This development was by no means original, and could be traced in at least two 3. SPINOZA AND PANTHEISM Western traditions: Hellenic and Judaistic. Since these two traditions turn out crucial for understand- ing Einstein's view on the religious phenomena, it Broadly speaking Spinoza's doctrine may be seems in order here to sketch common features and di®erences regarding their content and ultimate his- considered as a continuation of the Judaistic philo- torical fates. sophical tradition, whose beginnings may be traced Both traditions followed the same evolution back to Philo of Alexandria (Saunders 1997, Si- pattern, starting from common religions, more pre- mon et Benoit 1998). Living in the metropolis of cisely { religions designed for common people. The the Hellenistic world, with a large Greek popula- principal feature of these stages is personalized, even tion and numerous Jewish community, Philo's con- anthropic gods. Greeks had a well-developed, though cern was mainly in reconcilliating the Jewish faith, not unique and ¯xed Pantheon, whereas early He- based on the Torah mythology, and the superior brews started with a number of henotheistic gods Greek philosophical teachings. Squeezed between too. But after this initial phase, these two tra- the elaborated rational systems of Plato, Aristotle, ditions diverged. Greek people's religion remained (neo) Pythagoreans etc, from one side, and the scle- polytheistic up to the appearance of Christianity rotic canonized religious dogmas and tradition of the (Veyne 1983) as a quasi-monotheistic faith, Hebrews Holy Scripts, which were not to be modi¯ed, Philo soon reduced their concept of divine oligarchy to the resorted to the old way out to save the phenomena { monotheistic one, their own tribal god, (Jehovah). to the allegorical interpretation of the written sacro- At further stages this god became the God, a unique sanct texts. One of his ¯rst tasks was to deperson- deity, which acquired two principal, albeit contradic- alize the God, interpreting the assertion that God tory, attributes. He was the God of all mankind, the created man according to his own image as not re- universal Demiurge, and yet the tribal, Jewish god, ferring to a physical appearance of the Creator, but 62 ALBERT EINSTEIN, COSMOS AND RELIGION to his ethical essence. This departure from the liter- remark does not hit far from the target. Einstein's ary meaning was a big step from the common faith most fundamental contributions to the physical sci- toward more rational, abstract religion, making it a ences may be focused on one single pursuit, that on philosophical subject. It is this new concept of God, fathoming the nature of light. It is well known, ac- which Spinoza took over and developed further to cording to testimony of Einstein himself, how young the extreme rational and logical limits. Albert was occupied running in front of a light beam. Spinoza was Einstein's religious hero, and for His inquiries on the subject resulted in Theory of the good reason.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Anti-Semitism and Zionism
    Bachelor Thesis Natuur- en Sterrenkunde Einstein and Spinoza in Weimar Germany by Nicolaas J. Geijer October 2019 Studentnumber 11000058 Supervisor Prof. Dr. Jeroen van Dongen Table of Contents Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 2 Jewish Emancipation ....................................................................................................... 4 Spinoza .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Einstein .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Einstein and the Jewish Renaissance ....................................................................... 11 World War I ............................................................................................................................... 12 Ostjuden ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Spinoza the Authentic Jew ............................................................................................ 16 The Heidelberg Affair ............................................................................................................. 18 Anti-Semitism and
    [Show full text]
  • Einstein for the 21St Century
    Einstein for the 21st Century Einstein for the 21st Century HIS LEGACY IN SCIENCE, ART, AND MODERN CULTURE Peter L. Galison, Gerald Holton, and Silvan S. Schweber, Editors princeton university press | princeton and oxford Copyright © 2008 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Einstein for the twenty-first century: His legacy in science, art, and modern culture / Peter L. Galison, Gerald Holton, and Silvan S. Schweber, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-13520-5 (hardcover : acid-free paper) 1. Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955—Influence. I. Galison, Peter Louis. II. Holton, Gerald James. III. Schweber, S. S. (Silvan S.) IV. Title: Einstein for the 21st century. QC16.E5E446 2008 530.092—dc22 2007034853 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Aldus and Trajan Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 13579108642 Contents Introduction ix part 1 Solitude and World 1 Who Was Einstein? Why Is He Still So Alive? 3 Gerald Holton 2 A Short History of Einstein’s Paradise beyond the Personal 15 Lorraine Daston 3 Einstein’s Jewish Identity 27 Hanoch Gutfreund 4 Einstein and God 35 Yehuda Elkana 5 Einstein’s Unintended Legacy: The Critique of Common-Sense Realism and Post-Modern Politics 48 Yaron Ezrahi 6 Subversive Einstein 59 Susan Neiman 7 Einstein and Nuclear Weapons 72 Silvan S.
    [Show full text]
  • Einstein, Mileva Maric
    ffirs.qrk 5/13/04 7:34 AM Page i Einstein A to Z Karen C. Fox Aries Keck John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ffirs.qrk 5/13/04 7:34 AM Page ii For Mykl and Noah Copyright © 2004 by Karen C. Fox and Aries Keck. All rights reserved Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation.
    [Show full text]
  • A Holy Curiosity: Transformative Self-Directed Learning to Breakthrough New Knowledge in the Case of Einstein
    The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2012 A Holy Curiosity: Transformative Self-Directed Learning to Breakthrough New Knowledge in the Case of Einstein Deanna Lynn Vogt University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Administration Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, and the Educational Methods Commons Recommended Citation Vogt, Deanna Lynn, "A Holy Curiosity: Transformative Self-Directed Learning to Breakthrough New Knowledge in the Case of Einstein" (2012). Dissertations. 789. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/789 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi A HOLY CURIOSITY: TRANSFORMATIVE SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING TO BREAKTHROUGH NEW KNOWLEDGE IN THE CASE OF EINSTEIN by Deanna Lynn Vogt Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2012 ABSTRACT A HOLY CURIOSITY: TRANSFORMATIVE SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING TO BREAKTHROUGH NEW KNOWLEDGE IN THE CASE OF EINSTEIN by Deanna Lynn Vogt May 2012 The case of Einstein’s discovery of the relativity theory, explored with grounded theory methodology, illustrates a type of self-directed learning characterized by personal and non-personal, or technical, transformative learning, the result of which is iconic original, breakthrough learning. This dissertation explores three aspects of adult learning which are novel in adult education.
    [Show full text]
  • Dc684lepoirepaper17mar2019.Pdf
    The Journal of Big History (JBH) ISSN 2475-3610 Volume III Number 2, https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i2.3200 Editor: Lowell Gustafson (Villanova University, USA) Associate Editor: Esther Quaedackers (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) Book Review Editor John Mears (Southern Methodist University, USA) Editorial Board Mojgan Behmand (Dominican University of California, USA) Craig Benjamin (Grand Valley State University, USA) David Christian (Macquarie University, Australia) Javier Collado Ruano (National University of Education, Ecuador Seohyung Kim (Ewha Womans University, South Korea) Andrey Korotayev (Moscow State University, Russia) Johnathan Markley (University of California, Fullerton, USA) BarryLucy Bennison Rodrigue Laffitte (Symbiosis (North School Carolina for Liberal State University, Arts, India) USA) Fred Spier (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) Nobuo Tsujimura (Institute for Global and Cosmic Peace, Japan) Joseph Voros (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia) Sun Yue (Capital Normal University, China) JBH, the journal of the International Big History Association (IBHA), is published on line and is accessible to members of the IBHA. The IBHA also publishes its bulletin, Origins. The bulletin contains members’ accounts of their activities and views, announcements of conferences and meetings of interest, and other communication of interest to IBHA members. We encourage readers of the JBH to send letters and responses to [email protected] to the address below: International Big History Association SAC 253 Villanova University Villanova, PA 19085 USA [email protected] Journal of Big History (JBH). The views and opinions expressed in JBH are not necessarily those of the IBHA Board. JBHPlease reserves visit journalofbighistory.org the right to accept, reject for orinformation edit any material on how submittedto submit articlesfor publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Albert Einstein: Rebellious Wunderkind
    Albert Einstein: Rebellious Wunderkind Galina Weinstein Childhood and Schooldays: Albert Einstein, and the family members seemed to have exaggerated the story of Albert who developed slowly, learned to talk late, and whose parents thought he was abnormal. These and other stories were adopted by biographers as if they really happened in the form that Albert and his sister told them. Hence biographers were inspired by them to create a mythical public image of Albert Einstein. Albert had tendency toward temper tantrums, the young impudent rebel Einstein had an impulsive and upright nature. He rebelled against authority and refused to learn by rote. He could not easily bring himself to study what did not interest him at school, especially humanistic subjects. And so his sister told the story that his Greek professor, to whom he once submitted an especially poor paper, went so far in his anger to declare that nothing would ever become of him. Albert learned subjects in advance when it came to sciences; and during the vacation of a few months from school, Albert independently worked his way through the entire prospective Gymnasium syllabus. He also taught himself natural science, geometry and philosophy by reading books that he obtained from a poor Jewish medical student of Polish nationality, Max Talmud, and from his uncle Jacob Einstein. 1. Albert was not a good orator In 1924 in her Biographical Sketch (after Einstein became world famous), Einstein's sister, Maja, told the following story:1 Albert as a child "would play by himself for hours. […] he developed slowly in childhood, and he had such difficulty with language that those around him feared he would never learn to speak.
    [Show full text]
  • 50 Nobel Laureates and Other Great Scientists Who Believe in God
    50 NOBEL LAUREATES AND OTHER GREAT SCIENTISTS WHO BELIEVE IN GOD This book is an anthology of well-documented quotations. It is a free e-book. Copyright (c) 1995-2008 by Tihomir Dimitrov – compiler, M.Sc. in Psychology (1995), M.A. in Philosophy (1999). All rights reserved. This e-book and its contents may be used solely for non-commercial purposes. If used on the Internet, a link back to my site at http://nobelists.net would be appreciated. Compiler’s email: [email protected] CONTENTS Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 PART I. NOBEL SCIENTISTS (20th - 21st Century) …………...... 6 1. Albert EINSTEIN – Nobel Laureate in Physics ………………………………………………….. 6 2. Max PLANCK – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………………………... 8 3. Erwin SCHROEDINGER – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………...... 10 4. Werner HEISENBERG – Nobel Laureate in Physics ………………………………………….. 12 5. Robert MILLIKAN – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………………….. 14 6. Charles TOWNES – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………………….. 16 7. Arthur SCHAWLOW – Nobel Laureate in Physics …………………………………………….. 18 8. William PHILLIPS – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………………….. 19 9. William BRAGG – Nobel Laureate in Physics …………………………………………………. 20 10. Guglielmo MARCONI – Nobel Laureate in Physics …………………………………………. 21 11. Arthur COMPTON – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………………... 23 12. Arno PENZIAS – Nobel Laureate in Physics …………………………………………………. 25 13. Nevill MOTT – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………………………. 27 14. Isidor Isaac RABI – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………………… 28 15. Abdus SALAM – Nobel Laureate in Physics …………………………………………………. 28 16. Antony HEWISH – Nobel Laureate in Physics ……………………………………………….. 29 17. Joseph H. TAYLOR, Jr. – Nobel Laureate in Physics ………………………………………. 30 18. Alexis CARREL – Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology ……………………………. 31 19. John ECCLES – Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology ……………………………… 33 20. Joseph MURRAY – Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology ………………………….
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Four the Mysterious Universe of James Jeans
    Durham E-Theses Popular Theology from Popular Scientists: Assessing the Legacy of Eddington and Jeans as Apologists REYNOLDS, JONATHAN,OWEN How to cite: REYNOLDS, JONATHAN,OWEN (2017) Popular Theology from Popular Scientists: Assessing the Legacy of Eddington and Jeans as Apologists , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12370/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Popular Theology from Popular Scientists: Assessing the Legacy of Eddington and Jeans as Apologists Abstract This thesis asserts and demonstrates that the current historical evaluation of the significance of Arthur Eddington and James Jeans is inadequate. Not only has their importance in the years between the two World Wars been forgotten, but their transitional role in the science and religion debate post-Darwin is now largely unrecognised. Both had a major influence on subsequent popular apologists and Eddington in particular influenced post war academic theologians as diverse as Thomas Torrance and Eric Mascall.
    [Show full text]
  • Einstein on Religion and Science
    Original Paper UDC 2: 001/Einstein Received April 18th, 2006 Marko Uršič Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, Aškerčeva 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana [email protected] Einstein on Religion and Science Abstract The main issue of this paper is the question what Einstein actually meant from the philo- sophical and/or theological point of view in his famous phrase God does not play dice. What is the ‘underlying’ concept of necessity in this phrase, and first of all: which God here does not play dice – theistic, deistic, pantheistic? Some other passages from Einstein’s in- formal writings and public speeches suggest that he was very close to pantheism, following Spinoza, whom he admired and appreciated mostly among philosophers. However, Spino- za’s pantheism implies determinism which was presumably not the main point of Einstein’s protest against ‘dicing God’ in quantum physics… So, is Einstein’s God nevertheless closer to Newton’s Pantocrator as to Spinoza’s Deus sive natura? Maybe yes, but only in case if the ‘Universal Ruler’ does not punish, neither reward his creatures, ourselves, tiny human beings in the mighty and incredibly ‘well-tuned’ cosmos. The enigma of the famous phrase remains. Key Words God, playing dice, panteism, determinism, religion, science, Albert Einstein For motto of my contribution in this conference at 100th anniversary of Ein- stein’s Special Theory of Relativity, I have chosen a quotation from his fa- mous essay The World As I See It (1930), which reveals very well Einstein’s greatness, his modesty, compassion and human faith: “How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Epistemic Virtues of the Virtuous Theorist: on Albert Einstein and His Autobiography1
    The Epistemic Virtues of the Virtuous Theorist: On Albert Einstein and His Autobiography1 Jeroen van Dongen Institute for Theoretical Physics Amsterdam Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract Albert Einstein’s practice in physics and his philosophical positions gradually reoriented themselves from more empiricist towards rationalist viewpoints. This change accompanied his turn towards unified field theory and different presentations of himself, eventually leading to his highly programmatic Autobiographical Notes in 1949. Einstein enlisted his own history and professional stature to mold an ideal of a theoretical physicist who represented particular epistemic virtues and moral qualities. These in turn reflected the theoretical ideas of his strongly mathematical unification program and professed Spinozist beliefs. Introduction In the early 19th century, the experimental physicist Michael Faraday perfected his notebook recordkeeping such that the data would enter them entirely without regard to what his original hypotheses might have been. His way of working sharply contrasts with Arthur Worthington’s, who in the earlier years of his career saw the need to generalize and brush over asymmetries in his visual studies of liquid drops: such asymmetries were deemed irrelevant for capturing the latter’s essence. Faraday and Worthington represent two ideal types, two ‘personae’ that figured prominently in the practice of nineteenth century science. The novel and self-denying scientist aspiring to the objective representation of nature represented the world differently than the intuitively working scholar, who wished to point out the true essence of a natural phenomenon: the first ideally presented his observations unfiltered and directly, without intervention; the second would at times, e.g., see the need to smooth out the irregular or asymmetric.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kantian Grounding of Einstein's Worldview: (I) the Early Influence Of
    POLISH JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY Vol. IV, No. 1 (Spring 2010), 45-64. The Kantian Grounding of Einstein’s Worldview: (I) The Early Influence of Kant’s System of Perspectives Stephen Palmquist Department of Religion and Philosophy Hong Kong Baptist University Abstract. Recent perspectival interpretations of Kant suggest a way of relating his epistemology to empirical science that makes it plausible to regard Einstein’s theory of relativity as having a Kantian grounding. This first of two articles exploring this topic focuses on how the foregoing hypothesis accounts for various resonances between Kant’s philosophy and Einstein’s science. The great attention young Einstein paid to Kant in his early intellectual development demonstrates the plausibility of this hypothesis, while certain features of Einstein’s cultural-political context account for his reluctance to acknowledge Kant’s influence, even though contemporary philosophers who regarded themselves as Kantians urged him to do so. The sequel argues that this Kantian grounding probably had a formative influence not only on Einstein’s discovery of the theory of relativity and his view of the nature of science, but also on his quasi-mystical, religious disposition. 1. Kant’s System of Perspectives as the Grounding for Modern Scientific Revolutions In the course of defending Albert Einstein’s revolutionary approach to physics, and perhaps also as an implicit affirmation of Einstein’s religious worldview, Sir Arthur Eddington boldly asserted: “There are absolute things in the world but you must look deeply for them” (Eddington, 1928/1935, p. 34). What are these “absolute things,” in terms of Einstein’s theory of relativity? Are they explicable or necessarily mysterious? Moreover, what led young Einstein to his revolutionary convictions regarding these deep absolutes that govern the natural world? The suggestion that Einstein’s worldview was essentially Kantian might seem unwarranted for two reasons.
    [Show full text]
  • Einstein, “Religion and Science,” New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930, Section 5, Pp
    CHAPTER 1 Einstein's Religiosity and the Role of Religion in His Private Life In his autobiography, Einstein wrote that ªthe essential in the being of a man of my type lies precisely in what he thinks and how he thinks, not in what he does or suffers.º1 Had we strictly complied with this statement, we would have had to restrict our discussion on Einstein's thought about religion and the arguments on which he based his religious belief. But because a religious credo is usually con- ditioned, partially at least, by the milieu in which one grows up, by the education one receives, and by the literature one has read, we shall begin with an account of these factors insofar as they are relevant to Einstein's religious outlook. Of®cial records and Jewish family registers reveal that, since at least 1750, Einstein's paternal and maternal ances- tors had lived in southern Germany, mainly in Buchau, a small town not far from Ulm. Albert's great-grandfather was born there in 1759, his grandfather Abraham in 1808, and his father Hermann in 1847. The fact that Albert, born in Ulm on March 14, 1879, was, contrary to Jewish tradition, not given the name of his grandfather, shows that his parents were not dogmatic in matters of religion. Although they never re- nounced their Jewish heritage, they did not observe tradi- tional rites or dietary laws and never attended religious ser- vice at the synagogue. Hermann Einstein regarded Jewish rituals as relics of an ancient superstition and ªwas proud that Jewish rites were not practiced in his home,º as Albert's son- in-law Rudolf Kayser wrote in his biography of Einstein, which he published under the pseudonym Anton Reiser.2 1 A.
    [Show full text]