|
You do not find any new ideas, nothing radical, everything seems to be balanced. Einstein comments the meaning of life, the true value of man, Good and Bad, religion and science, war and peace, politics and pacifism. This is consequent, because to give such a meaning of life to oneself would be contradictory. All people are egoists, but this has mostly nothing to do with their ideology, rather with their nature. Striking is, that this is the last headline: "For the humiliation of the scientific man".
Therefore you cannot expect life-alien considerations or too much of abstract revelations from his pen. Of course he sees also in the Palestine conflict only a peaceful co-existence as aim to strive for. Also an individual who outlasts his bodily death, I do not like and cannot imagine: may weak souls out of fear or ridiculous egoism nourish such thoughts. This becomes clear in his statements. Besides the fact that he failed in this, it does not seem to have brought him to reconsider his own ideology, an ideology limited to that what is visible and measurable.
For me the mystery of the eternity of life and the conscience and the idea of the wonderful construction of the existence is enough." Such kind of utterances prove that Einstein had his prejudgment too. Nobody made himself to live. For them redemption means to break it. From what he says you can conclude that he cared honestly for the future of mankind. Einstein belongs to the people, who deserve it to be listened, what they have to say. Einstein is in doubts that there can be something like that at all. He immigrated as a German Jew from Nazi-Germany and was confronted with the decision to share in the fight against the Nazi-regime.
Another chapter shows what occupied him most of his life, he calls it the "Jewish problems". Mainly this book deals with his sayings on physical science. He was obliged to the Zionismus, but he was no follower of the Jewish belief ("The Jewish God is only a negation of superstition") and also no follower of Christianity (only a teaching, "which would be able to heal the humankind of social diseases"). Hindus and Buddhists for example feel the eternal wheel of rebirths as burdensome.
This book comprises a collection of Einsteins confessions and ideological statements. There are people who are not in fear of death but life`s continuation. For decades he tried to prove that everything could be built into the classical physics and not to disprove the conclusions of the quantum physics, which surpass the limits of the measurable universe, but to tame them. This spares us some speculations. One chapter is dedicated to the National Socialism.
Beside contemporary historical and political questions and thoughts Einstein gives account about his scientific work and its embedding into the social context. Einstein`s credo: "A God who rewards and punishes the subjects of his creation, who has at all a will of the kind we ourselves realize in us, is not what I can fancy. A combination not to scandalize or tend to agitate. He was no universal scholar like Alexander von Humboldt or Leibniz, he was neither theoretist given to philosophyzing. Einstein does, "Goodness, beauty and truth" are his declared contents of life, not "welfare" and "happiness", which he calls the "Ideal of the swineherd".
Instead you can proclaim idealistic ideas. It is good to know that he himself uttered his ideology, his personal faith in written form. Is there a certain contempt for the average people recognizable. What was his satisfaction. And what is the meaning of life.
"In so far as the sentences of mathematics relate to reality, they are not certain, and in so far as they are certain they do not relate to reality." Great achievement to get this as a passionate mathematician. Einstein was sorry to have had his effects on it. "Everything that has been made and thought by man, is just for satisfaction of felt requirements and the stopping of pains." Is man really to be reduced to this alone. And there he was a keen thinker. The last chapter deals with the main topic of his life, the scientific work. For them he uses other animalistic comparisons: About the majority of the stupid he said: "To be a flawless member of the sheep herd, you have to be a sheep before everything else." Not quite without humour.
He was a humanist endowed with humbleness. It is true, an expert is only an expert in his special field. Hence I believe, that man serves best when occupied with a good thing, refining him hereby indirectly." Hm, the construction of the atomic bomb must have been an object of refinement. Readable and instructive are his announcements nevertheless. There is also a letter to an Arab.
Again, there are some good things to take from the book, but I think you'll do yourself better by exploring other Einstein works that are out there. Normally, I like to read while lying in my bed with a dim lamp on, and normally it's not an issue. I can read for hours like this--but I needed to read "The World As I See It" outdoors or with music on, otherwise I was constantly falling asleep after a mere one or two pages. I read "Ideas and Opinions" before diving head first into this one, and I'm glad I did. Just one man's opinion. In "The World As I See It," I found it to be a bit jumbled and thrown together without too much thought as to why it's presented the way it is, etc. Had I read this first, there's a great chance I never would have read "Ideas and Opinions" which I found to be fascinating. There are some good bits and pieces included in this book, but overall I just couldn't get into it.
It contains numerous Einstein's non-technical writings organized in four major parts: The World as I See It, Politics and Pacifism, Germany 1933, and The Jews. His letters to a college freshman, to an Arab admirer, to Japanese schoolchildren and so on, all have the same calmness of purpose to them as his messages to VIPs like Lorentz, Berliner, Katzenstein, and others.In these writings, Einstein distinguishes religion from science. Like a god of sorts, he is omniscient, omnipotent, unknowable, and incomprehensible all at the same time.The World as I See It presents a clear and coherent picture of Einstein. Such insights glue the entire book together.The reader will see in this book Einstein, the scientist, and Einstein the person, both in one unit. To most of us the name Albert Einstein is synonymous with the formula E = MC-squared.
He believed in democracy as an ideal, and not surprisingly, he declared in "Germany 1933" that "As long as I have any choice, I will only stay in a country where political liberty, toleration, and equality of all its citizens before the law are the rule" (p. It is not hard to understand from the writings in this book how he was a pacifist. Einstein the person was very encouraging to others and thankful to people and things in the world. His defense was based on the notion that "There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair" (p.29).It is clear that Einstein loved science. I enjoyed reading things like: "To be sure, it is not the fruits of scientific research that elevate a man and enrich his nature, but the urge to understand, the intellectual work, creative or receptive" (p. And defending it he did in Germany, Italy, everywhere. This part is packed with pure wisdom on a variety of topics. Even so, there is no evidence that he sought to dehumanize and ridicule believers, only to defend science and humanity.
Because the formula is such a simple statement of a complex idea, the public tends to see Einstein as both a simple and complex man. It is clear for instance that he did not believe in God at the time of his writing. 81).This is a great book - highly recommended.Amavilah, Author Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies ISBN: 1600210465 My favorite part is by far the first. 7).
einstein's essay was a good readbut the rest of the letters didnt really get to me
A very quick read and recommended for anyone who enjoys Einstein's brilliant insights into matters beyond Physics. This is a short collection of various speeches, letters, and other writings on Einstein's thoughts on various subjects. Delves into matters such as his thoughts on war, religion, and a few other subjects.
|
