THE WORLD—AND US

Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Gravitation by Albert Einstein, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. THE WORLD—AND US

THE WORLD—AND US

An Introductory Discussion of the Philosophy of Relativity, and of the Mechanism of Our Contact with Time and Space

BY VARIOUS CONTRIBUTORS AND THE EDITOR

From a time beyond the dawn of history, mankind has been seeking to explain the universe. At first the effort did not concern itself further probably than to make a supposition as to what were the causes of the various phenomena presented to the senses. As knowledge increased, first by observation and later by experiment also, the ideas as to these causes passed progressively through three stages—the theological (the causes were thought to be spirits or gods); the metaphysical (the causes were thought in this secondary or intermediate stage to be some inherent, animating, energizing principles); and the scientific (the causes were finally thought of as simply mechanical, chemical, and magneto-electrical attractions and repulsions, qualities or characteristics of matter itself, or of the thing of which matter is itself composed.)

With increase of knowledge, and along with the inquiry as to the nature of causes, there arose an inquiry also as to what reality was. What was the essential nature of the stuff of which the universe was made, what was matter, what were things in themselves, what were the noumena (the realities), [20]lying back of the phenomena (the appearances)? Gradually ideas explaining motion, force, and energy were developed. At the same time inquiry was made as to the nature of man, the working of his mind, the nature of thought, the relation of his concepts (ideas) to his perceptions (knowledge gained through the sense) and the relations of both to the noumena (realities).]283

[The general direction taken by this inquiry has been that of a conflict between two schools of thought which we may characterize as those of absolutism and of relativism.]* [The ancient Greek philosophers believed that they could tap a source of knowledge pure and absolute by sitting down in a chair and reasoning about the nature of time and space, and the mechanism of the physical world.]221 [They maintained that the mind holds in its own right certain concepts than which nothing is more fundamental. They considered it proper to conceive of time and space and matter and the other things presented to their senses by the world as having a real existence in the mind, regardless of whether any external reality could be identified with the concept as ultimately put forth. They could even dispute with significance the qualities which were to be ascribed to this abstract conceptual time and space and matter. All this was done without reference to the external reality, often in defiance of that reality. The mind could picture the world as it ought to be; if the recalcitrant facts refused to fit into the picture, so much the worse for them. We all have heard the tale of how generation after generation of Greek philosophers disputed learnedly why and how it was [21]that a live fish could be added to a brimming pail of water without raising the level of the fluid or increasing the weight; until one day some common person conceived the troublesome idea of trying it out experimentally to learn whether it were so—and found that it was not. True or false, the anecdote admirably illustrates the subordinate place which the externals held in the absolutist system of Greek thought.]*

[Under this system a single observer is competent to examine a single phenomenon, and to write down the absolute law of nature by referring the results to his innate ideas of absolute qualities and states. The root of the word absolute signifies “taking away,” and in its philosophical sense the word implies the ability of the mind to subtract away the properties or qualities from things, and to consider these abstract qualities detached from the things; for example, to take away the coldness from ice, and to consider pure or abstract coldness apart from anything that is cold; or to take away motion from a moving body, and to consider pure motion apart from anything that moves. This assumed power is based upon the Socratic theory of innate ideas. According to this theory the mind is endowed by nature with the absolute ideas of hardness, coldness, roundness, equality, motion, and all other absolute qualities and states, and so does not have to learn them. Thus a Socratic philosopher could discuss pure or absolute being, absolute space and absolute time.]

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