The physicist & the philosopher : Einstein, Bergson, and the debate that changed our understanding of time

488 Pages·2015·4.71 MB·English

by  Henri Louis

THE PHYSICIST AND THE PHILOSOPHER

THE PHYSICIST
&
THE PHILOSOPHER
EINSTEIN, BERGSON, AND THE DEBATE THAT
CHANGED OUR UNDERSTANDING OF TIME
JIMENA CANALES
Princeton University Press
Princeton and oxford
Copyright © 2015 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
press.princeton.edu
Jacket photographs: Albert Einstein, detail from photograph of Albert Einstein
and Others, 1931. Courtesy of the Dibner Library of the History of Science
and Technology, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Henri Bergson, from
The Outline of Science: A Plain Story Simply Told, by J. Arthur Thomson, 1922.
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Canales, Jimena, author.
The physicist and the philosopher : Einstein, Bergson, and the debate that changed
our understanding of time / Jimena Canales.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-16534-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Time—Philosophy.
2. Relativity (Physics) 3. Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955. 4. Bergson, Henri, 1859–1941.
5. Physicists—United States— Biography. 6. Philosophers—France—Biography. I. Title.
BD638.C326 2015
115—dc23
2014047686
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon Next LT Pro
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Preface vii
PART 1. THE DEBATE
CHAPTER 1 Untimely 3
CHAPTER 2 “More Einsteinian than Einstein” 16
CHAPTER 3 Science or Philosophy? 38
PART 2. THE MEN
CHAPTER 4 The Twin Paradox 53
CHAPTER 5 Bergson’s Achilles’ Heel 62
CHAPTER 6 Worth Mentioning? 73
CHAPTER 7 Bergson Writes to Lorentz 87
CHAPTER 8 Bergson Meets Michelson 98
CHAPTER 9 The Debate Spreads 114
CHAPTER 10 Back from Paris 131
CHAPTER 11 Two Months Later 139
CHAPTER 12 Logical Positivism 153
CHAPTER 13 The Immediate Aftermath 162
CHAPTER 14 An Imaginary Dialogue 172
CHAPTER 15 “Full- Blooded” Time 179
CHAPTER 16 The Previous Spring 195
CHAPTER 17 The Church 203
vI CONTENTS
CHAPTER 18 The End of Universal Time 218
CHAPTER 19 Quantum Mechanics 230
PART 3. THE THINGS
CHAPTER 20 Things 241
CHAPTER 21 Clocks and Wristwatches 252
CHAPTER 22 Telegraph, Telephone, and Radio 265
CHAPTER 23 Atoms and Molecules 274
CHAPTER 24 Einstein’s Films: Reversible 283
CHAPTER 25 Bergson’s Movies: Out of Control 292
CHAPTER 26 Microbes and Ghosts 303
CHAPTER 27 One New Point: Recording Devices 315
PART 4. THE WORDS
CHAPTER 28 Bergson’s Last Comments 327
CHAPTER 29 Einstein’s Last Thoughts 337
Postface 349
Acknowledgments 359
Notes 363
Bibliography 423
Index 451
PREFACE
“I cannot get it into my head,” wrote Einstein, that the last thirty years
“make up almost 109 seconds.” What makes a moment meaningful,
haunting our past and our future? April 6, 1922 was a significant date
for Einstein; it was the day he met Henri Bergson, one of the most re-
spected philosophers of his era.
In a widely publicized meeting in Paris, the philosopher congratu-
lated the physicist for having discovered a stunning theory but chastised
him for having lost aspects of time that were intuitively important for
us. Appalled to see a theory ignore what attracted our attention toward
certain events and not to others, Einstein’s critic sketched out the princi-
ples of an alternative cosmology that would neither fall prey to the arid
precision of the sciences nor wallow in poetic rhetoric. Applauded for
his “full- blooded” notion of time, his objections would inspire genera-
tions to come.
During the face- to- face encounter “between the greatest philosopher
and the greatest physicist of the twentieth century,” his audience learned
how to become “more Einsteinian than Einstein.” Bergson did not con-
test any experimental results; he accused the physicist of “grafting upon
science” a dangerous “metaphysics.” The physicist responded swiftly,
enlisting allies against the man who refused to grant to science— and
physics— the power to reveal the time of the universe.
“The time of the universe” discovered by Einstein and “the time of
our lives” associated with Bergson spiraled down dangerously conflict-
ing paths, splitting the century into two cultures and pitting scientists
against humanists, expert knowledge against lay wisdom. With reper-
cussions for American pragmatism, logical positivism, phenomenology,
and quantum mechanics, a series of intrigues and alliances explain why
longstanding rivalries between science and philosophy, physics and
vIII PREFACE
metaphysics, objectivity and subjectivity are still so passionately fought.
By the end of their lives, Bergson reconsidered Einstein and Einstein
reconsidered Bergson, but their views remained irreconcilable.
The Physicist and the Philosopher is divided into four main parts. The
first opens with three chapters that take us directly to the meeting be-
tween Einstein and Bergson. Part 2 then focuses on the men. It details
the various contexts where Einstein’s contributions were considered in
direct relation to Bergson’s critique. We follow the debate as it rever-
berated from France to England, Germany, and America. In each of
these places, we meet some of the major players involved in the conflict,
such as the Catholic Church, and see how it affected various scientific
and philosophical movements, such as American pragmatism, logical
positivism, and quantum mechanics. Some of these chapters focus on
key moments before and after April 6, 1922, when similar arguments to
those delivered that day were advanced.
Part 3 centers on the things. It investigates why Einstein and Bergson
remained so divided by zooming into particular examples that came
up again and again— explicitly and repeatedly— in their discussions
and those of their interlocutors. Certain things, such as the telegraph,
telephone, radio, film, and automatic registering devices, played salient
roles. Microscopic particles, tiny microbes, immense observers, super-
fast beings, animals and ghosts entered their discussions as well.
Part 4 concludes with words— the last comments they made about
each other. At that time, Bergson was nearly eighty, witnessing the
rise of Nazism in Germany, the occupation of Paris, and a new era of
conflict and unrest. Einstein was well into his seventies. He had retired
from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton and was reminisc-
ing about Bergson a few months before the Americans detonated the
world’s first hydrogen bomb. In the end, we encounter a story of the rise
of science in a divided century, of misunderstanding and mistrust, and
of the every day things that tear us apart.
PART 1
THE DEBATE