Einstein's library... books that he loved and that contributed to shaping his exceptional thought
It included many classics of science, culture and philosophy
Albert Einstein is one of the most brilliant human thinkers and physicists in human history that we know of. This is a fact that I do not think anyone disputes its validity. But this exceptional advantage that Einstein acquired did not come from nowhere or purely from a talent that the laws of biological inheritance assigned to him and no one else. Throughout his life, Einstein was an avid reader whose appetite for reading never waned. This diligent reading enabled him to become one of the best minds in human history.
One almost enters a maze that one cannot decipher whenever Einstein is mentioned. Although the man is considered the greatest physicist of the twentieth century, his books do not reveal much about his intellectual and philosophical background, let alone their deceptive simplicity. His two best-known books, The Meaning of Relativity and Relativity: The Special and General Theory, were perhaps his most famous works, and in them we see Einstein employing some thought experiments - which seem intuitive and very simple - to produce extremely intellectually daring physical results. Who among the physicists can state that the speed of light in the universe is constant, regardless of the state of the measurement references? As for Einstein’s books in the intellectual and philosophical field, such as (The World as I See It, Ideas and Opinions), they indicate a complex philosophical mind that traveled in vast areas of the field of human experience.
I will never forget when I read in the late seventies of the last century a rich article published by the Iraqi magazine “Afaq Arabiya” entitled (The Contest of the Age between Bohr and Einstein). The intellectual significance of the topic was that Bohr and Einstein represented two opposing philosophical trends in modern physics, and on the basis of this conceptual opposition, some of the most complex concepts in quantum theory, which is the cornerstone of contemporary physics, were formed.
In the book entitled (Einstein for the Twenty-First Century: Einstein's Legacy in Science, Art, and Modern Culture), which was published by Princeton University in 2008 and has not yet been translated into Arabic, the book's editors, Peter Galison, Gerald Holton, and Sylvan Schweber, write that Einstein's library included many books that were considered books. It is a classic of science, culture and philosophy, and it specifically contained great collections of German books. Names appear in these books such as: Boltzmann (Austrian physicist), Buchner (German chemist), Friedrich Heppel (German writer and playwright), Heine (German poet, critic, and journalist), Helmholtz (German physicist and physician), von Humboldt (German diplomat and philosopher, founded... A university known in his name), as well as the names of many philosophers, including: Immanuel Kant, Lessing, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer.
Cover of the book “Einstein for the Twenty-First Century”
It would be legitimate, and even necessary, to ask: What books did Einstein count as his favorites? Perhaps there is no single simple answer to this question; But we certainly know the books that the author of the theory of relativity always mentioned in his works more than others. The following are five of the books that were close to Einstein's general philosophical and intellectual taste, and contributed to the formation of his exceptional research mind, and were referred to by the sober website BIG THINK: 1. Analysis of Sensations: Einstein admitted more than once that his development of his theory of relativity was greatly influenced by the work of Ernst. Ernest Mach, a prominent Austrian philosopher and physicist of the 19th century. In his important book (The Analysis of Sensations), Mach presented a qualitative thesis regarding the deceptive nature of the human senses, and the many transformations that characterize the human ego.
This work of Mach contained a criticism of Newton's theories of time and space; Which Einstein employed and made it one of his sources of inspiration in creating his personal ideas of a revolutionary nature in science and philosophy. For example, the theory of relativity is a development of a physical hypothesis that Mach had put forward in this book, and Einstein later called it “Mach’s principle,” and considered it the cornerstone of his theory.
In a letter dated 1915 written to the Austrian philosopher Moritz Schlick, Einstein described the writers who influenced the formation of his thought and the maturation of his theory of relativity. He said in that letter: “You have correctly intuited this trend in thought (meaning positivism) which has had a great influence on my intellectual efforts, and particularly in this regard Ernst Mach and David Hume, whose works I studied with diligence and appreciation shortly before the theory of relativity was developed.” . I can say that without these two philosophical minds, I might not have been able to achieve the correct formulation of the theory of relativity...”
Perhaps it is useful in this regard to point out that Einstein in his last years took a philosophical position opposing Mach’s positivist philosophy because he saw it as a philosophy centered on solid computational logic and considered metaphysics and theology irrelevant in any true philosophy.
2. Don Quixote: Einstein remained a lover of Cervantes all his life. Leopold Infeld, a Polish physicist who co-wrote with Einstein a book entitled (The Development of Physics), the first edition of which was published in 1938, writes the following in his autobiography, for which he chose the title (The Endeavour): “Every night, Einstein used to lie in his bed, content with his underwear. Then he goes on to read passages from Don Quixote. This novel was the work he always liked to read when he was seeking some relaxation...”
3. Ethics: Baruch Spinoza, the Dutch philosopher of the seventeenth century, is described as the author of works that laid the firm foundation for the European Enlightenment. There is a clear agreement among all members of the European and international intelligentsia that Spinoza’s book “Ethics” is one of the basic pillars in the formation of Western thought, and Spinoza worked hard in it to present a picture of reality, as well as ways to live a sober moral life.
Spinoza's spiritual vision is described in the context of a principle called Pantheism, which has many supporters (including, for example, the Lebanese writer Michael Naima). Einstein remained loyal to this principle throughout his life, and pantheism remained a cornerstone of his spiritual worldview.
4. A Treatise on Human Nature: This is one of the books written by the famous Scottish philosopher David Hume in the eighteenth century. Einstein admits that he sees this book as the best human attempt at revealing the relationship between science and human nature, and that it played a major role in shaping his vision regarding the nature of human behavior.
Einstein sees the unique achievement of this book in that Hume moved from the space of metaphysical intuitions towards studying and testing facts that can be observed, which represents a more comprehensive idea that Hume adopted in all his works, which is that facts alone are not suitable for understanding the laws of nature. This vision, championed by Hume, resonated with the young physicist Einstein, and had a major impact on the development of his ideas that contradicted individual intuition and general intuition.
5. The works of Goethe: The works of Goethe, the German author, physicist, poet, novelist, and writer, were perhaps the works that occupied the largest space in Einstein’s library. Einstein's library included the complete works of Goethe in thirty-six volumes, in addition to twelve additional volumes, two volumes of his work called (Optics), the complete correspondence between Goethe and the poet Schiller (the great romantic poet of his time), and several editions of Goethe's novel (Faust).
Einstein described Goethe in a letter he wrote in 1932 to a friend, expressing his admiration for the German poet and philosopher: “Goethe is an unparalleled poet, and one of the most intelligent and wisest men of all time. His lofty ideas deserve to be placed in the ranks of their great counterparts, but his mistakes are no greater than the mistakes of any great man equal to him in stature and ability...”
Einstein loved many other books, including: The Brothers Karamazov, the novel written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Isis Unveiled, the book written by the Russian spiritualist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.
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