Thoughts on Einstein’s Philosophy

by

Andrew OlsonApril 29, 2010

Albert EinsteinMarch 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955

Born Ulm, German Empire, Died Princeton NJ USParents: Hermann Einstein, Pauline Koch

Sister: Maria (Maja)Family Heritage: Jewish, non-practicingEducation: Catholic elementary

public secondary (incl. Jewish religion) violin from age 4 Max Talmud, mentor: age 10-16 stimulated interest in science, philosophy

University: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology(ETH) age 17-19, Diploma Math. & Physics

First Wife

• Mileva Marić ~1879-1948– Parents: Milos & Marija Marić– Nationality: Austro-Hungarian Empire • Milos prominent in Court and wealthy

– Religion: Eastern Orthodox Christian– Eldest of 3 sisters– Came to ETH because it admitted women– Did well in physics, failed exams in mathematics

• She and Albert met in class• They began a passionate love affair• Intended to collaborate in physics research• Albert took 2 years to find job after Diploma– No professor recommended him for a post– He moved about looking for job– Mileva bore their girl at her home meanwhile– ~ 1900 Albert got job in Swiss Patent Office

Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein 1912

• Albert and Mileva married in 1903 over parents’ objections– Hans Albert born 1904 in Bern– Eduard born 1910 in Zurich

• Estranged ~1914, divorced 1919• Their self reliance, frequent separation during

university studies and his search for work, and his Gandhian emotional investment in his work may have doomed this promising marriage.

Second Wife

• Elsa Löwenthal– First cousin, mother’s side; second, father’s side

• Affair in 1912 with Albert• Married Albert in 1919– No children with Albert

• Emigrated to U.S. in 1933 with Albert to flee Nazis

• She died in Princeton NJ 1936

Work• Wrote 1st paper on state of ‘ether’ in magnetic

fields during secondary school• Doctorate in Physics at ETH, 1905, age 26;

wrote on a method to determine molecular size• 1905 published groundbreaking works – Photoelectric effect (Nobel Prize, 1921)– Special Theory of Relativity– Equivalence of energy and matter– Brownian motion

• 1911 General Theory of Relativity

Philosophy• Humanistic– Those instrumental goods which should serve to maintain

life and health of all human beings should be produced by the least possible labor of all. • demands freedom of communication to achieve education

– ... “In order to be content, men must have the possibility of developing their intellectual and artistic powers to whatever extent accords with their personal characteristics and abilities.”• requires social benefits for all;

– Possibly includes his idea of “spiritual development”

• These may be key to his term ‘religious sentiments’.

• "Strange is our situation here on Earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men”.

• His moral ethics here identifies him as a Humanist. He associated with some Humanist groups.

• Was he a Religious Humanist, or not?

• Accepted Plato’s sense of positivism– Objective truth of everything, including moral– Abstract reality is accessible to reason– Common bond with Kurt Gödel was built on this

• Strenuous difference on Quantum Theory with Copenhagen school (Bohr, Born, Heisenberg) because of this

• Einstein never abandoned concept of causality and a discoverable unifying principle for world

Religious Ideas• Incorporated father’s and Talmud’s teachings

into his conception of ‘religion’.• Rejected his initial acceptance of religious

teachings around 12.• Outlined the rise of religion:– Ancients tried to control world of fear of danger,

hunger, illness, death by anthropomorphizing it and placating it. A priest & ruler class arose to control this world and society. This was a Religion of Fear.

– Need for guidance and support lead to moral conception of the ‘God of Providence’

• Different combinations of these 2 religions constitute the current religions.

• Einstein’s “cosmic religious feeling,” devoid of anthropomorphic God and theology, surfaces when individuals feel the futility of human desires and seek the sublimity and marvelous order revealed in nature and thought.

• His model of the rise of religion agrees well with scientific Naturalism’s and also agrees with some of its philosophers on human responsibility.

• The scientist’s feeling of religion is “a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it all of the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”

• Having neither theology nor judgmental deity, how can this cosmic religious feeling spread?

• That is the role of art and science.

• Einstein’s “an intelligence vastly superior to ours” has lead many to claim he believed in some form of active God. His denials of a divine entity as anything other than an extension of the Universe suggest not.

• “There is nothing divine about morality. It is a purely human affair.” What is good in the Universe must work itself out through us.

• Einstein felt that a “vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a lawgiver”.

• Law of causation implies no deity exists that intervenes in the laws of nature or to judge humans. There are no miracles.

• Einstein was no strict Determinist. He felt that a person had choice, so should base ethical decisions on sympathies, education, and social ties and needs (not religious mandates).

• He did conceive of the Universe and the harmonies of its laws as an expression of ‘God’, which extends beyond these.

• “I am not an atheist, and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist.” (God=Universe, God not transcendent, personal, creator).

• He may have felt that God≥Universe logically, but seems to have agreed with the rest of the definition.

• Science is a collection of methodologies and knowledge that brings together by means of systematic thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into a thoroughgoing relation. It can address only what is.

• It is a program that requires a ‘faith’ that it is realizable in principle. This faith springs from religion. One has ‘faith’ in the sense of being thoroughly confident that the laws ruling the Universe are rational.

• Religion addresses what should be and includes the ethical and moral codes that humanity has developed, and applies these primarily using esthetics .

• It establishes humanity’s goals and valuations via accumulated traditions given by “powerful personalities”, not divine mandate. It is the source of inspiration in the scientist’s work.

• So defined, science and religion cannot conflict. Conflicts arise only by misunderstanding these roles.

• In efforts for the “ethical good”, religious teachers of must abandon a personal God and “avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself.”

• Einstein declared his idea of ‘God’ was the same as Spinoza’s.

• Spinoza said that motion is intrinsic to matter. This implies nothing extrinsic was required to initiate the Big Bang.

• If Einstein knew this, he would have denied being a Deist ( Deity initiates the Universe, but then leaves it alone). Some have believed he was a Deist.

• “I am a deeply religious nonbeliever.” This accords with his meaning of ‘religion’, but not the common one.

Albert Einstein In Summary• Humanist• Positivist in sense of Plato, but not Determinist• Scientific Naturalist• Scientist’s marvel at nature is Religion, which has

no deity and theology• Art and Science propagate religion• His ‘God’ is extension of Universe’s laws, not

personal one; he is neither Deist nor pantheist• He would say he is a Religious Humanist, contrary

the common usage