Read The World as I See It Online

Authors: Albert Einstein

Tags: #Science, #History, #Biography, #Philosophy, #Politics, #Non-Fiction, #Writing

The World as I See It

BOOK: The World as I See It
4.51Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

The World As I See It

 

Albert Einstein
Translated by Alan Harris

 

 

Contents

 

Preface to the Original Edition

 

Preface to the New Authorized Edition

 

Introduction to the Abridged Edition

 

I The World As I See It

 

The Meaning of Life

 

The World As I See It

 

The Liberty of Doctrine—Á
Propos
of the Gumbel Case

 

Good and Evil

 

The True Value of a Human Being

 

Society and Personality

 

Address at the Grave of H. A. Lorentz

 

H. A. Lorentz’s Work in the Cause of International Co-Operation

 

In Honour of Arnold Berliner’s Seventieth Birthday

 

Popper-LynkÆus

 

Obituary of the Surgeon, M. Katzenstein

 

Congratulations to Dr. Solf

 

Of Wealth

 

Education and Educators

 

To the Schoolchildren of Japan

 

Teachers and Pupils

 

Paradise Lost

 

Religion and Science

 

The Religiousness of Science

 

The Plight of Science

 

Fascism and Science

 

Interviewers

 

Thanks to America

 

The University Course at Davos

 

Congratulations to a Critic

 

Greeting to G. Bernard Shaw

 

Some Notes on My American Impressions

 

Reply to the Women of America

 

II Politics and Pacifism

 

Peace

 

The Pacifist Problem

 

Address to the Students’ Disarmament Meeting

 

To Sigmund Freud

 

Compulsory Service

 

Germany and France

 

Arbitration

 

The International of Science

 

The Institute for Intellectual Co-Operation

 

A Farewell

 

The Question of Disarmament

 

The Disarmament Conference of 1932

 

America and the Disarmament Conference

 

Active Pacifism

 

Letter to a Friend of Peace

 

Another Ditto

 

A Third Ditto

 

Women and War

 

Thoughts on the World Economic Crisis

 

Culture and Prosperity

 

Production and Purchasing Power

 

Production and Work

 

Minorities

 

Observations on the Present Situation in Europe

 

The Heirs of the Ages

 

III Germany 1933

 

Manifesto

 

Correspondence with the Prussian Academy of Sciences

 

A Reply

 

IV The Jews

 

Jewish Ideals

 

Is There a Jewish Point of View?

 

Jewish Youth—An Answer to a Questionnaire

 

Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine

 

The Jewish Community

 

Working Palestine

 

Jewish Recovery

 

Anti-Semitism and Academic Youth

 

A Letter to Professor Dr. Hellpach, Minister of State

 

Letter to an Arab

 

Christianity and Judaism

 

A Biography of Albert Einstein

 

Preface to the Original Edition

 

ONLY INDIVIDUALS HAVE
a sense of responsibility.—
NIETZSCHE
.

This book does not represent a complete collection of the articles, addresses, and pronouncements of Albert Einstein; it is a selection made with a definite object—namely, to give a picture of a man. To-day this man is being drawn, contrary to his own intention, into the whirlpool of political passions and contemporary history. As a result, Einstein is experiencing the fate that so many of the great men of history experienced: his character and opinions are being exhibited to the world in an utterly distorted form.

To forestall this fate is the real object of this book. It meets a wish that has constantly been expressed both by Einstein’s friends and by the wider public. It contains work belonging to the most various dates—the article on “The International of Science” dates from the year 1922, the address on “The Principles of Scientific Research” from 1923, the “Letter to an Arab” from 1930—and the most various spheres, held together by the unity of the personality which stands behind all these utterances. Albert Einstein believes in humanity, in a peaceful world of mutual helpfulness, and in the high mission of science. This book is intended as a plea for this belief at a time which compels every one of us to overhaul his mental attitude and his ideas.

J. H.

 

Preface to the New Authorized Edition

 

ALBERT EINSTEIN WAS THE
greatest physicist of the twentieth century. His image and name are recognizable to almost everyone, along with his equation
E=mc
2
, which describes the relationship between energy and mass. His impact on science and intellectual thought during his lifetime was profound.

This volume contains a collection of sixty-seven essays written before 1935, when Einstein was at the height of his scientific powers but not yet known as the sage of the atomic age. His stature in the world allowed him to express his views on social, philosophical, and political issues that were outside the field of physics. These essays established his early foray into these areas.

Why are we so interested in all aspects of Einstein’s philosophical positions and his thought processes? His theories of relativity and universal gravitation are generally regarded as inaccessible to the ordinary person. Yet we know that he was an original thinker who was able to see beyond the conventional scientific worldview of his age. What is remarkable is that Einstein’s greatest discoveries belong to him alone. It is perhaps fitting that this volume is being published one hundred years after Einstein settled the question of why the sky is blue. What we see is a giant intellect struggling as an ordinary person to make sense of the realities of life in the twentieth century.

This book is divided into four parts:

(1) The World as I See it (28 essays)
(2) Politics and Pacifism (25 essays)
(3) Germany (3 essays)
(4) The Jews (11 essays)

Some of the essays are letters to friends and strangers. Others are well thought out, closely reasoned treatises on topics such as: “The Meaning of Life,” “Religion and Science,” “Fascism and Science,” and “Jewish Ideals.”

The fundamental tenants of Einstein’s philosophical positions are outlined clearly in several early essays. He indicated his indebtedness to Schopenhauer, the political ideal of democracy, his fundamental position of pacifism, and his understanding of his private religion.

Einstein’s position was that “everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity.” This enabled him to later mitigate his sense of responsibility for his role in the start of the atomic age. We see in the second essay, “The World as I See It,” a succinct outline of Einstein’s personal, religious, and scientific philosophy. It was his sense of wonder of the mysteries of experience which drove him toward his profound scientific achievements.

Much of the present volume represented a response to the world around him. A brief synopsis of the political events in Einstein’s life until 1935 should help set the stage: Since Einstein had Swiss citizenship his absolute pacifism would have been a natural ethical position. In 1914 he signed a petition against Germany’s acts of aggression leading up to the First World War. Soon after 1918 he accepted German citizenship in order to support the German Democratic Party and became an unofficial spokesman for the Weimar republic. He felt such a strong association with Germany that in 1921 he refused to attend the Solvay Congress in Belgium because other German scientists were excluded. He was very encouraged by the formation of the fledgling League of Nations in 1922, but was very troubled by the League’s inability to respond to France’s occupation of the Ruhr. In 1922, he joined the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, which was part of the League of Nations. It was within this context that he developed a correspondence with Sigmund Freud (“To Sigmund Freud”). In the period from 1922 through 1932 he broke with the League of Nations three times, the last being final. This was a testament to the conflict that he felt between his idealism and the reality of the political arena in which such an organization must work. An example appeared in his essay “A Farewell.”

After the First World War, Einstein was a willing associate of Zionism. In March 1921 Einstein made the first of many visits to America. His main purpose was to raise funds for the establishment of the planned Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as he outlines in “Addresses on the Reconstruction in Palestine,” which were written at different times and delivered in different places. It was on this first visit that he received the massive public adulation that marked the transformation of a great scientist into a controversial and historic twentieth-century icon and public figure.

Einstein characterized himself as a supporter of cultural and social Zionism, but not political Zionism, thus attempting to stay true to his distrust of nationalism. He wanted the Jews to “solve the problem of living side by side with our brother the Arab in an open, generous and worthy manner” (“Addresses on the Reconstruction in Palestine II”). This position of a pluralistic state was at direct odds to the Zionist political ideal. Einstein did not have the unquestioned support of the Jewish community in America, and his backing of the Zionist movement was criticized by many who felt that Jews should assimilate to society in America.

BOOK: The World as I See It
4.51Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Hours of the Virgin by Loren D. Estleman
Cum For Bigfoot 10 by Virginia Wade
Survivors by Rich Goldhaber
Return to Spring by Jean S. Macleod
Set Me Free by London Setterby