Essay: What I Believe, Albert Einstein, 1930
Strange is our situation here upon earth.
Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know:
MAN IS HERE FOR THE SAKE OF OTHER MEN – above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.
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Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner LIFE IS BUILT UPON THE LABORS OF MY FELLOW MEN, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.
My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.
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I do not believe we can have any freedom at all in the philosophical sense, for we act not only under external compulsion but also by inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying – “A MAN CAN SURELY DO WHAT HE WILLS TO DO, BUT HE CANNOT DETERMINE WHAT HE WILLS” – impressed itself upon me in youth and has always consoled me when I have witnessed or suffered life’s hardships.
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This conviction is a perpetual breeder of tolerance, for it does not allow us to take ourselves or others too seriously, it makes rather for a sense of humor.
TO PONDER INTERMINABLY OVER THE REASON FOR ONE’S OWN EXISTENCE OR THE MEANING OF LIFE in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be SHEER FOLLY.
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And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment.
The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth.
TO MAKE A GOAL OF COMFORT OR HAPPINESS HAS NEVER APPEALED TO ME.
A system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
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Without the sense of collaborating with like-minded beings in the pursuit of the ever unattainable in art and scientific research, my life would have been empty.
EVER SINCE CHILDHOOD I HAVE SCORNED THE COMMONPLACE LIMITS SO OFTEN SET UPON HUMAN AMBITION.
Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury – to me these have always been contemptible.
I believe a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
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My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to A MARKED LACK OF DESIRE FOR DIRECT ASSOCIATION WITH MEN AND WOMEN.
I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or team work.
I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or state, to my circle of friends, or even to my own family.
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These ties have always been accompanied by a vague aloofness, and the wish to withdraw into myself increases with the years.
Such isolation is sometimes bitter, but I DO NOT REGRET BEING CUT OFF FROM THE UNDERSTANDING AND SYMPATHY OF OTHER MEN.
I lose something by it, to be sure, but I am compensated for it in being rendered independent of the customs, opinions, and prejudices of others, and am not tempted to rest my peace of mind upon such shifting foundations.
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My political ideal is democracy.
EVERYONE SHOULD BE RESPECTED AS AN INDIVIDUAL, BUT NO ONE IDOLIZED.
It is an irony of fate I should have been showered with so much uncalled-for and unmerited admiration and esteem.
Perhaps this adulation springs from the unfulfilled wish of the multitude to comprehend the few ideas which I, with my weak powers, have advanced.
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Full well do I know in order to attain any definite goal it is imperative one person should do the thinking and commanding and carry most of the responsibility.
But THOSE WHO ARE LED SHOULD NOT BE DRIVEN, and they should be allowed to choose their leader.
It seems to me the distinctions separating the social classes are false and in the last analysis they rest on force.
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I am convinced degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for VIOLENCE INEVITABLY ATTRACTS MORAL INFERIORS.
Time has proved illustrious tyrants are succeeded by scoundrels.
For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to such regimes as exist in Russia and Italy today.
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The thing which has discredited the European forms of democracy is not the basic theory of democracy itself, which some say is at fault, but the instability of our political leadership, as well as the impersonal character of party alignments.
I believe that YOU IN THE UNITED STATES HAVE HIT UPON THE RIGHT IDEA.
You choose a President for a reasonable length of time and give him enough power to acquit himself properly of his responsibilities.
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On the other hand, IN THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT I LIKE THE STATE’S MORE EXTENSIVE CARE OF THE INDIVIDUAL WHEN HE IS ILL OR UNEMPLOYED.
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WHAT IS TRULY VALUABLE IN OUR BUSTLE OF LIFE IS NOT THE NATION, BUT THE CREATIVE AND IMPRESSIONABLE INDIVIDUALITY, AND THE PERSONALITY – he who produces the noble and sublime while the common herd remains dull in thought and insensible in feeling.
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This subject brings me to THAT VILEST OFFSPRING OF THE HERD MIND – THE ODIOUS MILITIA.
The man who enjoys marching in line and file to the strains of music falls below my contempt.
He received his great brain by mistake – the spinal cord would have been amply sufficient.
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This heroism at command, this senseless violence, THIS ACCURSED BOMBAST OF PATRIOTISM – HOW INTENSELY I DESPISE THEM!
War is low and despicable, and I had rather be smitten to shreds than participate in such doings.
Such a stain on humanity should be erased without delay.
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THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING WE CAN EXPERIENCE IS THE MYSTERIOUS.
It is the source of all true art and science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
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THIS INSIGHT INTO THE MYSTERY OF LIFE, COUPLED THOUGH IT BE WITH FEAR, HAS ALSO GIVEN RISE TO RELIGION.
To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which out dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness.
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In this sense, and in this sense only, I BELONG IN THE RANKS OF DEVOUTLY RELIGIOUS MEN.
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own – a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.
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NEITHER CAN I BELIEVE THE INDIVIDUAL SURVIVES THE DEATH OF HIS BODY, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism.
It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.
(end of essay)
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From article: What Is the Theory of Everything? Adam Mann, August 29, 2019
A theory of everything (TOE) is a hypothetical framework explaining all known physical phenomena in the universe.
Researchers have searched for such a model ever since the development of quantum mechanics and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity in the early 20th century.
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Each of these pillars of modern physics describes its respective area of inquiry — the very smallest and the most massive things in the cosmos — with astounding accuracy, but both quantum mechanics and relativity fail when applied to each other's subject matter.
SO FAR, AN OVERARCHING THEORY OF EVERYTHING HAS ELUDED SCIENTISTS, AND SOME BELIEVE THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS UNREALISTIC.
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EINSTEIN BEGAN TO SEARCH FOR A UNIFYING THEORY IN THE 1920s, according to the American Physical Society (APS).
He had never fully accepted the strange paradoxes of quantum mechanics, and he believed the mathematics describing electromagnetism and gravity, the only two forces known at the time, could be combined into a single framework.
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"I WANT TO KNOW HOW GOD CREATED THIS WORLD," Einstein told a young physics student named Esther Salaman in 1925.
"I'm not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element.
I want to know His thoughts, the rest are just details."
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But Einstein's quest proved quixotic during his lifetime.
"Most of my intellectual offspring end up very young in the graveyard of disappointed hopes," he wrote in a letter in 1938.
Yet he didn't give up, and while ON HIS DEATHBED, HE ASKED TO HAVE HIS LATEST NOTES ON THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING BROUGHT TO HIM, according to the APS.
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During the mid-20th century, physicists developed the Standard Model, which has been called THE "THEORY OF ALMOST EVERYTHING."
It describes the interactions of all known subatomic particles and three of the four fundamental forces: electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces, but not gravity.
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A MODEL THAT ALSO INCLUDED GRAVITY WOULD BE KNOWN AS A QUANTUM GRAVITY THEORY.
Some researchers believe string theory is such a framework and fits the bill for a theory of everything.
String theory posits particles are actually one-dimensional, string-like entities vibrating in an 11-dimensional reality.
The vibrations determine the different particles' properties, such as their mass and charge.
Or, maybe it doesn't exist
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Other scientists consider the idea of string theory an intellectual dead end.
Peter Woit, a theoretical physicist at Columbia University, has repeatedly scolded his colleagues for chasing what he considers an imaginary dream.
"The BASIC PROBLEM WITH STRING THEORY UNIFICATION RESEARCH is not that progress has been slow over the past 30 years," Woit wrote on his blog, "but that it has been negative, with everything learned showing more clearly why the idea doesn't work."
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In his bestselling book "A Brief History of Time" (1988), physicist STEPHEN HAWKING DISCUSSED HIS DESIRE TO HELP CREATE A THEORY OF EVERYTHING (which was also the title of his 2014 biopic).
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But the famous scholar changed his mind later in life.
He thought such a theory would be out of reach forever because HUMAN DESCRIPTIONS OF REALITY ARE ALWAYS INCOMPLETE, according to a 2002 lecture available on a website dedicated to the late physicist.
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This fact did not sadden him but rather gave him hope.
"I'm now glad our search for understanding will never come to an end and that we will always have the challenge of new discovery," Hawking said.
"WITH THE UNDERSTANDING OF EVERYTHING, WE WOULD STAGNATE."
(end of article)
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Half of people won’t accept the understanding, and the resulting on-going positive-negative interaction, friction and conflict will disallow stagnation.
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