The world as I see it - Albert Einstein (easy books to read .txt) 📗

/> Political passion cannot be allowed to go to such lengths. I am
convinced that every man who reads Herr Gumbel's books with an open mind
will get the same impression from them as I have. Men like him are needed if
we are ever to build up a healthy political society.

Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has
himself read, not by what others tell him.

If that happens, this Gumbel case, after an unedifying beginning, may
still do good.


Good and Evil


It is right in principle that those should be the best loved who have
contributed most to the elevation of the human race and human life. But, if
one goes on to ask who they are, one finds oneself in no inconsiderable
difficulties. In the case of political, and even of religious, leaders, it
is often very doubtful whether they have done more good or harm. Hence I
most seriously believe that one does people the best service by giving them
some elevating work to do and thus indirectly elevating them. This applies
most of all to the great artist, but also in a lesser degree to the
scientist. To be sure, it is not the fruits of scientific research that
elevate a man and enrich his nature, but the urge to understand, the
intellectual work, creative or receptive. It would surely be absurd to judge
the value of the Talmud, for instance, by its intellectual fruits.

The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure
and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self.

Society and Personality


When we survey our lives and endeavours we soon observe that almost the
whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other
human beings. We see that our whole nature resembles that of the social
animals. We eat food that others have grow, wear clothes that others have
made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our
knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through
the medium of a language which others have created. Without language our
mental capacities wuuld be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher
animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage
over the beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if
left alone from birth would remain primitive and beast-like in his thoughts
and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what
he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his
individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which
directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.

A man's value to the community depends primarily on how far his
feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of
his fellows. We call him good or bad according to how he stands in this
matter. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended
entirely on his social qualities.

And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It is clear that all the
valuable things, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from
society can be traced back through countless generations to certain creative
individuals. The use of fire, the cultivation of edible plants, the steam
engine--each was discovered by one man.

Only the individual can think, and thereby create new values for
society--nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the
community conforms. Without creative, independently thinking and judging
personalities the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the
development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the
community.

The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of
the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion. It has
been said very justly that GrФco-Europeo-American culture as a whole, and in
particular its brilliant flowering in the Italian Renaissance, which put an
end to the stagnation of mediФval Europe, is based on the liberation and
comparative isolation of the individual.

Let us now consider the times in which we live. How does society fare,
how the individual? The population of the civilized countries is extremely
dense as compared with former times; Europe to-day contains about three
times as many people as it did a hundred years ago. But the number of great
men has decreased out of all proportion. Only a few individuals are known to
the masses as personalities, through their creative achievements.
Organization has to some extent taken the place of the great man,
particularly in the technical sphere, but also to a very perceptible extent
in the scientific.

The lack of outstanding figures is particularly striking in the domain
of art. Painting and music have definitely degenerated and largely lost
their popular appeal. In politics not only are leaders lacking, but the
independence of spent and the sense of justice of the citizen have to a
great extent declined. The democratic, parliamentarian regime, which is
based on such independence, has in many places been shaken, dictatorships
have sprung up and are tolerated, because men's sense of the dignity and the
rights of the individual is no longer strong enough. In two weeks the
sheep-like masses can be worked up by the newspapers into such a state of
excited fury that the men are prepared to put on uniform and kill and be
billed, for the sake of the worthless aims of a few interested parties.
Compulsory military service seems to me the most disgraceful symptom of that
deficiency in personal dignity from which civilized mankind is suffering
to-day. No wonder there is no lack of prophets who prophesy the early
eclipse of our civilization. I am not one of these pessimists; I believe
that better times are coming. Let me shortly state my reasons for such
confidence.

In my opinion, the present symptoms of decadence are explained by the
fact that the development of industry and machinery has made the struggle
for existence very much more severe, greatly to the detriment of the free
development of the individual. But the development of machinery means that
less and less work is needed from the individual for the satisfaction of the
community's needs. A planned division of labour is becoming more and more of
a crying necessity, and this division will lead to the material security of
the individual. This security and the spare time and energy which the
individual will have at his command can be made to further his development.
In this way the community may regain its health, and we will hope that
future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as
the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the
excessive speed at which civilization was advancing.


Address at the Grave of H. A. Lorentz

It is as the representative of the German-speaking academic world, and
in particular the Prussian Academy of Sciences, but above all as a pupil and
affectionate admirer that I stand at the grave of the greatest and noblest
man of our times. His genius was the torch which lighted the way from the
teachings of Clerk Maxwell to the achievements of contemporary physics, to
the fabric of which he contributed valuable materials and methods.

His life was ordered like a work of art down to the smallest detail.
His never-failing kindness and magnanimity and his sense of justice, coupled
with an intuitive understanding of people and things, made him a leader in
any sphere he entered. Everyone followed him gladly, for they felt that he
never set out to dominate but always simply to be of use. His work and his
example will live on as an inspiration and guide to future generations.

H. A. Lorentz's work in the cause of International Co-operation

With the extensive specialization of scientific research which the
nineteenth century brought about, it has become rare for a man occupying a
leading position in one of the sciences to manage at the same time to do
valuable service to the community in the sphere of international
organization and international. politics. Such service demands not only
energy, insight, and a reputation based on solid achievements, but also a
freedom from national prejudice and a devotion to the common ends of all,
which have become rare in our times. I have met no one who combined all
these qualities in himself so perfectly as H. A. Lorentz. The marvellous
thing about the effect of his personality was this: Independent and
headstrong natures, such as are particularly common among men of learning,
do not readily bow to another's will and for the most part only accept his
leadership grudgingly. But, when Lorentz is in the presidential chair, an
atmosphere of happy co-operation is invariably created, however much those
present may differ