Albert Einstein: Philosopher and Scientist

BOOK REVIEWS ALBERT EINSTEIN: PHILOSOPHER AND SCIENTIST, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp. 781 pages, port., 16 X 24 cm. Evanston, The Library of laving Philosophers, 1949. Price, $8.5(I. The monumental "Library of Living Philosophers" has been enriched by the addition of this volume dealing with the man who possesses the most profound mind of our generati(m. The work is the tribute of the leading contemporary scientists to the great philosopher-scientist, honoring him on the seventieth birthday. The contributors, twenty-five in number, include Arnold Sommerfeld, Niels Bohr, Max Born, Louis de Broglie, Max von Lane, and Wolfgang Pauli. Each contributes a weighty study of some aspect of, or approach to, Einstein's work. Because the contributors are eminent in their own right they do not hesitate to disagree with some of Einstein's opinions and they produce some formidable equations to support their contentions. Nor do these writers fail to ask searching questions about his meaning. However, the subject of their homage has the last word, for the editor had the happy thought of permitting Einstein to reply to his critics at the end of the book. The most significant essay in the volume is t h a t contributed by Einstein himself, and which he calls "Autobiographical Notes." Very little is known of the personal story of the great man whose modesty has been a shield against the curious. Anyone who turns to this essay in the hope of learning smnething of his private life will be wasting time. It is an intellectual autobiography, telling what he thinks and how he arrived a t his conclusions. An interesting feature of the "Notes" is the account of the scientific theories in vogue at the time when Einstein began his studies. The milestones of his youth are recalled as the first time he saw a compass and his introduction to the works of Euclid. Both incidents set in operation a series of thoughts which demonstrate beyond all doubt t h a t Einstein was a most unusually precocious child. By the age of sixteen he had acquired a command of differential and integral calculus, and with this knowledge he began to explore "this huge world, which exists independently of us h u m a n beings and which stands before us like a great eternal riddle." Taking nothing for granted he submitted everything t h a t was offered to his mind to a rigid examination. Although the theory of relativity is traced from its inception in the author's mind while he was still a youth, the reader will find no simple account of its development. There never was a n y t h i n g simple a b o u t it. Results did not fall into Einstein's lap; every stage of the investigations was attained and passed only through prolonged hard work. As a result of the reading of these "Notes" we are reminded t h a t Einstein contributed more to contemporary physics than the theory of relativity. He did remarkable work on the Brownian movement, on statistical thermodynamics, and equilibrium fluctuations. Nor should it be overlooked t h a t his conception of light q u a n t a started physicists in their search for the means of synthetizing the wave and the corpuscular theories of light. This work alone would have entitled him to a foremost place among modern physicists had not these achievements been overshadowed by his epoch-making work on the theory of relativity. In every investigation he undertook Einstein first mastered the problems and then gave to them a novel aspect which had escaped other investigators. His elaboration of the transformation formulas of Lorentz is a notable example of this faculty. Coming hard on the heels of the announcement t h a t he has developed a field theory which integrates gravitation and electromagnetism this volume serves a useflfl purpose in surveying the grounds of preparation for the new theory much more completely than can be found elsewhere. The other contributors to the volume provide authoritative commentaries upon various aspects of Einstein's work, b u t nowhere is it light reading, and an extensive knowledge of mathematics is presupposed. The book is so complete t h a t it is likely to remain the standard work on the great philosopher in the light of contemporary knowledge. T.C. GIANT BRAINS OR MACHINES THAT THINK, by E d m u n d Callis Berkeley'. 270 pages, illustrations, 15 X 22 cm. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1949. Price, $4.00. " G i a n t Brains or Machines T h a t T h l n k " ! Can machines really think? Just what is thinking? The author answers both of these questions in his opening chapters and then goes 252