Table Of Content

Brought to you By ND-Warez.info & WarezPoets.com .. . .. Ideas and Opinions by A lbert Einstein Based on MEIN WELTBILD, edited by Carl Seelig, and other sources i New translations and revisions by Sonja Bargmann Crown Publishers, Inc . . New York :12894400 /-\ c. ? \J Copyright. 1954, by Crown Publishers. Inc. . E 1.\& -1') n Fifth Printing. February, 1960 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-6644 Printed in the United States of America Acknowledgment is made to the following for their kind permission to use copyrighted articles in this collection: Philosophical Library for "On Receiving the One -World Award," "The 'War Is Woo, but the Peace Is Not," "Mahatma Gandhi," copyright. 1950, in Out of My Later Years; Scientific American for "On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation," copyright. April, 1950, in tbe Scientific American,' The Library of Living Philosophers. Inc., for "Remarks on Bertrand Russell's Theory of Knowledge," translated by Paul A. Schilpp. copyright, 1951. pu blished by Tudor Publishing Company; UNESCO for "Culture Must Be Doe of the Foundations for World Under stanriing," in the December, 1951, issue of the Unesco Courier,' University of Chicago Press for "Dr. Einstein's Mistaken Notions" and "A Reply to the Soviet Scientists," from the February, 1948, issue of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists,' "Symptoms of Cultural Decay," from the October, 1952, issue of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists; British Association for the Advancement of Science for "The Common Language of Science," from Vol. 2, No.5, Advancement of Science,' Monthly Rr:view [or "Why Socialism?," from Vol. 1, No. I, Monthly Rr:vit:W; The Franklin Institute for "Physics and Reality," reprinted from Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. 221, No. S, March, 1936, with permission of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania; The American Scholar for "The Military Mentality," reprinted. from The American Scholar, Summer, 1947; The Christian Regutl!!r for "R.eligion and Science: Irreconcilable?," from the June, 1948, issue of The Christian Register; Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., for "On Freedom," from Freedom: Its Meaning, edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen, copyright, 1940, by Harcourt. Brace and Company, Inc.; The American Association for the Advancement of Science for "The State and the Individual Conscience," from Science, Vol. 112. p. 760, December 22, 1950; "The Fundarntmts of Theoretical Physics," from Science, Vol. 91, p. 487. May 24. 1940; The Atlantic Mot~thly [or "Atomic War or Peace," from the November, 1945 and November, 1947, issues of Atlantic Monthly, copyright under the titles "Atomic War or Peace, 1945": "Einstein on Atomic Bomb, 194-7," by The Atlantic Monthly Company, Boston, Mass.; Princeton University Press for "Testimonial Written for An Essay on tht! PsychololfY of Invention in the Mathematical Field~ by Jacques S. Hadamard," copyright by Princeton University Press, 1945; Collier's for "Why Do They Hale the Jews?," copyright by the Crowell~Collier Publishing Company, Collit!r's~ November 26, 19118. Methuen and Company, Ltd., for "Relativity" from the 1954 revised edition of Rt!lativity, the SPecial and General Thl!!ory, translated by Robert W. Lawson; "Geometry and Experience," from Sidelights of Relativit'Y. CONTENTS Publisher's Note v PART I: IDEAS AND OPINIONS Paradise Lost 3 The Religious Spirit of Science 40 My First Impressions of the 3 Science and Religion 41 U. S. A. 3 Religion and Science: IrrecoD- Reply to the Women of America 7 cilable? 49 The World as I See It B The Need for Ethical Culture 53 The Meaning of Life 11 The True Value of a Human About Education Being 12 Good and Evil 12 The University Courses at Davos 54 On Wealth 12 Teachers and Pupils 56 Education and Educators 56 Society and Personality 13 Education and World Peace 57 Intervi~. .. ers 15 Congratulations to a Critic 17 On Education 59 To the Schoolchildren of Japan 17 On Classic Literature 64 Message in the Time-Capsule 1B Ensuring the Fu ture of Mankind 65 Education for Independent Remarks on Bertrand Russell's Theory of Knowledge 1B Thought 66 A Mathematician's Mind 25 About Friends The State and the Individual Conscience 26 Joseph Popper-Lynkaeus 67 Aphorisms for Leo Baeck. 27 Greeting to George Bernard Shaw 6B In Honor of Arnold Berliner's About Freedom Seventieth Birthday 6B On Academic Freedom 2B H. A. Lorentz's Work in the Cause Fascism and Science 30 of International Cooperation 70 On Freedom 31 Address at the Grave of H. A. Lorentz 73 Address on Receiving Lord &: Taylor Award 33 H. A. Lorentz, Crea.tor and Modem Inquisitional Methods 33 Personality 73 Marie Curie in Memoriam 76 Human Rights 34 Mahalma Gandhi 77 About Religion Max Planck in Memoriam 78 Message in Honor of Monis Religion and Science 36 Raphael Cohen 79 PART II: ON POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, AND PACIFISM The International of Science B3 America and the Disannament A Farewell B4 Conference of 1932 100 The Institute of Intellectual The Question of Disarmament 102 Cooperation B6 Arbitration 103 Thoughts on the 'World Economic To Sigmund Freud 104 Crisis B7 Peace 106 Production and Purchasing Power 91 The Pacifist Problem 106 Production and Work 92 Address to the Students' Dis- Compulsory Service 107 armament Meeting 93 Women and "Var lOB The Disarmament Conference of Three Letters to Friends of Peace lOB 1932 95 Active Pacifism 110 Observations on the PI'esent On Receiving the One World Situation in Europe III Award 146 Germany and France 112 A Message to Intellectuals 147 CultuI'e and Prosperity 112 \Vhy Socialism? 151 Minorities 113 National Security 159 The Heirs of the Ages 114 The Pursuit of Peace 161 The War Is Won, but the Peace "Culture Must Be One of the Is Not 115 Foundations for WoI'ld Un· Atomic War or Peace 118 derstanding" 163 The Military Mentality 132 On the Abolition of the ThI'eat Exchange of Letters with Mem· of War 165 bers of the Russian Academy 134 Symptoms of Cultu:ral Decay 166 PART TIl: ON THE JEWISH PEOPLE A Letter to Professor Dr. Hell· Jewish Ideals 185 pach, Minister of State 17l Is There a Jewish Point of View? 1B5 Leeter to an Arab 172 Anti·Semltism and Academic The Jewish Community 174 Youth 187 Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine 176 Our Debt to Zionism l8B Working Palestine 183 Why Do They Hate the Jews? 191 Jewish Recovery 184 The Dispersal of European Jewry 19B Christianity and Judaism 184 The Jews of Israel 200 PART IV: ON GERMANY Manifesto-March, 1933 205 A Reply to the Invitation to Correspondence with the Prussian Participate in a Meeting Academy of Sciences 205 Against Anti·Semitism 211 Correspondence with the Bavarian To the Heroes of the Battle of Academy of Sciences 210 the Warsaw Ghetto 212 PART V: CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE Introduction, by Valentine On the Method of Theoretical Bargmann 217 Physics 270 Principles of Theoretical Physics 220 The Problem of Space, Ether, Principles of Research 224 and the Field in Physics 276 ''''hat Is the Theory of Relaw Notes on the Origin of the Gen· tivity? 227 eral Theory of RelatiVity 285 Geometry and E.xperience 232 Physics and Reality 290 On the Theory of Relativity 246 The Fundaments of Theoretical The Cause of the Formation of Physics 323 Meanders in the Courses of The Common Language of Rivers and of the Sowca1led Science 335 Daer's Law 249 E=MC' 337 The Mechanics of Newton and On the Generalized Theory of Their Influence on the Deve!· Gravitation 341 Message to the Italian Society for opment of Theoretical Physics 253 the Advancement of Science 356 On Scientific Truth 261 Message on the 410th Anniver- Johannes Kepler 262 sary of the Death of Coperni- Maxwell's Influence on the Evow cus 359 lution of the Idea of Physical Relativity and the Problem of Reality 266 Space 360 PUBLISHER'S NOTE Ideas and Opinions represents an attempt to gather together, so far as is possible, in one volume the most important of Albert Einstein's general writings. Until now there have been three major collections of articles, speeches, statements, and letters by Einstein: The World As I See It, translated by Alan Harris, published in 1934; Out of M.y Later Years (1950), containing material from 1934 to 1950; and M.ein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig, published in Switzerland in 1953, which contains certain new materials not included in either of the other collections. Ideas and Opinions contains in the publisher's opinion the most important items from the three above-mentioned books, a few selections from other publications, and new articles that have never been published in book form before. It was only with the very kind cooperation of Carl Seelig and Europa Verlag of Zurich and the help of Professor Einstein himself that it was possible to assemble this collection of Einstein's writings from the earliest days to addresses of only a few weeks ago. Special thanks must be given to Helen Dukas who facilitated the gathering of these articles and to Sonja Bargmann whose contribution is major: she checked and revised previous transla tions, provided new translations for all other articles not specifi cally credited. participated in the selection and editing of the entire volume and influenced her husband, Valentine Barg mann, to write the introduction to Part V, Contributions to Science. Acknowledgments should be made also to the various pub lishers who made availahle articles copyrighted by them and . whose names may be found with the articles. PART I IDEAS AND OPINIONS PARADISE LOST Written shortly atter the establishment in 1919 of the League of Nations and first published in French. Also published in Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: Querido Verlag, 1934 . . As late as the seventeenth century the savants and artists of all Europe were so closely united by the bond of a common ideal that cooperation between them was scarcely affected by politi cal events. This unity was further strengthened by the general use of the Latin language. Today we look back at this state of affairs as at a lost para ~e. The passions of nationalism have destroyed this commu nity ofthe intellect, and the Latin Janguage which once united the whole world is dead. The men of learning have become representatives of the most extreme national traditions and lost their sense of an intellectual commonwealth. Nowadays we are faced with the dismaying fact that the poli tici~, t{te practical men of affairs, have become the exponents of intem.1tional ideas. It is they who have created the League of Nations. MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE U. S. A. An interview for Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, 1921. Appeared in Berliner Tageblatt, July 7,1921. I must redeem my promise to say something about my impres sions of this country. That is not altogether easy for me. For it is not easy to take up the attitude of impartial observer when one is received with such kindness and undeserved respect as 3