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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
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