Einstein and The Cultural Roots of Modern Science

Einstein and the Cultural Roots of Modern Science Author(s): Gerald Holton Source: Daedalus, Vol. 127, No.
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Gerald Holton
Einstein and the Cultural Roots ofModern Science
THE ROOTS OF SCIENCE
IN THE CULTURAL
SOIL
The
fruits roots, as the But quite own Hume
of
scientific
research work
are nourished of other
including
the earlier
by many scientists. Sig
nificantly, Albert Einstein himself characterized his work

"Maxwellian the imagination "extrascientific" different, intellectual Program."1 of scientists often draws of also on another, In Einstein's
type he asserted autobiography, had crucially aided and Ernst Mach hints to
source. that in his
reading David early discover
ies.2 Such Einstein, cultural ideas of
on to one path that historical point scholarship main this day, has hardly the explored?tracing roots have helped that may scientific shape Einstein's first place, for example, in which the cultural milieu grew up.3 To put the literary or philosophic he and many of his fellow more as question generally, the
in the
aspect scientists science strict
Erwin Schr?dinger did in 1932: To what extent is the pursuit of

can have the bedingt more the and on," gentle "dependent useful meaning "to be of "being conditioned by," or, as I prefer, resonance in In short, the main with"? is to thrust of this essay milieubedingt, sense connective where of the word
explore how the cultural milieu

resonated with and conditioned
inwhich Einstein found himself

his science.
Gerald Holton ence Emeritus Rothschild 8, 1997.
is Mallinckrodt and Professor Professor of Physics of History of Sci at Harvard This essay is based on the Robert and Maurine University. in the History Lecture Distinguished of Science, Harvard April University,
Gerald Holton
There are major resonances of such milieu studies for example, the effect of the neo-Platonic of seventeenth-century interests theological for earlier
scientists: on and the
imagination the Galileo; adherence
philosophy such as Kepler figures that affected Newton's
the work; discoveries
to Naturphilosophie that supported the or connec R. of Oersted, and the J. Mayer, Amp?re; tion between the religious of the Puritan beliefs and the period in the apt metaphor science of the day, described that concludes K. Merton's and there of famous seventeenth century spread of science."4 have the thus cultural far 1938 monograph, "The cultural soil was for the fertile England peculiarly been few on to attempts the scientific take up advances the of
Robert of
growth But influence
milieu
scientists. is that of The best known twentieth-century physical to Paul Forman, who more than two decades tried ago interpret of some scientists' of quantum mechanics aspects presentations as their to the sociopolitical in the malaise response chiefly Weimar Kraft which the Republic5?although and Kroes.6 Max extent An that work has been vigorously
disputed by John Hendry,
Stephen Brush, and more
recently by
sort is in an area in of a different example and I have published, the study of Jammer namely, to which Niels Bohr's introduction of the principle under into physics was influenced by his
complementarity
delight
courses as he
in Soren Kierkegaard's
taken
philosophical
writings,
by his
Harald the philosopher and also, Hoffding, his of William claimed, James.7 reading by so far, there have in the But been few such investigations I have direction. intellectual-cultural (and wider, long thought of any particular scientific that the full understanding taught) to both content attention and context, employ requires so to speak, playing out whole orchestra of the instruments, ing cannot which there without the many components, interacting or understanding of a case. But this is rarely be a full description a middle exists the extremes of between done, though ground advance on one end, and constructivist study of the text alone, on the other. Moreover, in tracing the contributions externalism scientists the bridge of twentieth-century themselves, physical ones? to the humanistic culture the scientific from of parts internalistic which carried much traffic in the past?has narrowed and be
Einstein and the Cultural Roots of Modern

come fragile. attention. The least That is a deplorable loss, and one such
Science
3
our for at
that deserves attention
case of Einstein specific two reasons. it may First,
demands serve
other major twentieth-century nourished by subterranean manistic tradition. Second, that paradox and originality A PERSONAL has plagued of Einstein's
as an example for studying scientists whose work has been to elements us resolve with an of the hu
connections it will scholars
help concerned
intriguing the source
creativity.
INTERLUDE
While
search personal puzzling, of
it is fashionable
and on program, trajectory paradoxical When
for scholars to hide assiduously

circumstances that it will me to initiated be useful become
the pri
re the the
vate motivations
this occasion that caused
a specific to sketch aware of
aspects the news
of Einstein's of Einstein's
early work. death on April Although 18,
I can fix the moment

research. 1955, a local reached
at which
Iwas first drawn into this field

my colleagues life and work. proposed
our physics department, commemoration of Einstein's
in experimental my own research was chiefly high-pressure physics, on topics to write I had also begun in the history of science, and so my assignment was to present how Einstein's work had been of science. Little did I know that historians by modern analyzed this suggestion change would start me on a search that eventually would my profoundly to my dismay I discovered First, been done modern historians by scientific contributions?their their wider influence. opment, the volume and distinction of tists legacy of earlier of such periods, giants Marjorie Metzger, such which as George Nicolson, life as a scholar. that practically to had nothing Einstein's study seriously their devel their structure, was contrast to in striking the work and of scien the assessed
roots, This
on scholarship had examined
seph Needham, Koyr?, H?l?ne of their seemed
Otto Neugebauer, Sarton, Jo Robert Merton, Alexander to speak I Mach. Einstein
ancestors, to be in virgin
Fleck, and others?not Ludwig as Pierre Duhem and Ernst the many
biographies,
there were
Even among territory. few serious sources.8
Gerald Holton
Figure
1: Albert Hebrew
Einstein University,
at
age
nineteen.
(By permission
of
the
Einstein
Archive,
Jerusalem.)
In truth,
at
the
time
of Einstein's
death
he was
still
deeply the him last
respected,
but chiefly by way
of ancestral piety and for his

at the time Scientists seeker to McCarthyism, generally regarded who his had wasted
courageous opposition political arms race, and the Cold War. an obstinate as having become
decades pursuing
theory; village widely become vigorous To as he idiot." told
in vain his program of finding a unified field
taught a ghostly
a friend, "At Princeton they regard me as the to be his general relativity theory began In he had his last his death. after years, again only Even figure?a ready from the long way career for a brilliant has image (figure of 1). the
Today, be sure, many whose journalism,
young man, four decades
summarized
changed. of trendy on major motto is well in writing figures in a recent essay on Herman that carried Melville vastly the deluge
later, this perception are bursting from bubbles
Einstein the headline

is perhaps historians, on Einstein,
and the Cultural Roots of Modern "Forget the Whale?the

But among that
Science
Big Question
is: Did He
Beat His Wife?"9
more
at large Einstein's the people image science from ever; ubiquitous professional there is now an increasing flood of good scholarship at Boston since a team of researchers especially Col com
to publish has begun the volumes of Einstein's University with their extraordinarily valuable editorial lected Papers, ments further stimuli for research. providing None of this could I regret not quote Marie radioactivity, bibliography." mented,
In retrospect, in 1955. have been foreseen as was to I into this field, the drawn wit, having Curie. When asked why she took up the study of "Because there was no she is said to have replied, But as the historian had to take a it helped launch ones on Newton came in the form to look of Tetsu "first an Hiroshige step" later in research analogous com on to for to
somebody
Einstein; eventually, the long-established That Advanced base but some active access would first step Study
industry or Darwin.10
in Princeton
a trip to the Institute on which for documents
at the memorial The remarks meeting. original not only a trustee of Einstein's be Helen Dukas, in Einstein's household from 1928 as his
key to estate, and secretary about of his .
later as general marshallin much of his life and work, drafts die memory
in the household?knowledgeable she was the untiring translator
into English and, as it turned out, endowed with an encyclopevast correspondence of the details of Einstein's that had of my first encounter.11 something a large vault, was at the Institute to those in banks. The heavy door was partly open, and a on was her desk, illuminated Helen dimly by lamp or so file still handling among twenty correspondence, of Fuld Hall that turned out to contain inborn Einstein's scientific corre
passed through her hands. I have described Elsewhere In the similar inside, Dukas, drawers bowels
and manuscripts. spondence I had calmed Once her was of kind allowed indescribable of which to have access
exhilaration, most historians were knew
about and strangers suspicion to the files, I found myself in a state treasure in a fantastic house?the dream. with Those in a chaotic ease; almost documents, state through which to breathe they seemed
all unpublished, Dukas only Miss
arranged her way
6
the
Gerald Holton
life of the great scientist and all
his correspondents from a rich mixture of the compass, of science and philosophi points of humor and dead-serious cal speculation, calculations.
two stays at the Institute, I induced Miss Eventually, during an to into Dukas the papers archive for suitable help reorganize a to raisonn? have and research, made, scholarly by catalogue and more Mercer by to add to the files at the Institute what she called "the personal Street correspondence," home. The whole has since been which she had kept at Einstein's
documents, library at Hebrew collection were and living the wretched at
lot, now transferred
about 45,000 numbering to the Einstein's will by
University major
are most that
in Jerusalem. in that Represented in Europe and abroad who physicists is
indeed the
a microscope
as authors, statesmen, time, as well artists, of the earth, collection seeking help. The on half a century of history. Take, correspondence. one Einstein's of just during (1914-18); they indicate periods diverse for example, immensely a wide spec scientists?
It is an amazingly letters exchanged and of creative interests
the correspondents?mostly to the works the references made of major just by and scientific, figures, literary, Amp?re, philosophical including Kant, Helmholtz, Hertz, Hume, Boltzmann, Kirchhoff, Hegel, one word And and Spinoza. ap Poincar?, Mach, repeatedly among even if gauged in the correspondence?Weltbild, peared or "worldview." able as "worldpicture" and these this how concept, important translat faintly I knew Initially hardly in would become authors, only
busy trum
whole Einstein's research program. understanding to proceed? to my mission at the time. How In But to return at Princeton, of which the question of papers that mountain use to start on a historical I would almost study was problem one there were wherever looked, irrelevant; exciting possibili in the ties. For example, what role did experiments genesis play Like practically of the special everyone else, I relativity theory? of 1886 was that the Michelson-Morley had thought experiment the had crucial said so.) influence I had after read that led Einstein to the relativity Robert theory. Millikan, experiment,
(Indeed, I had just recently published a textbook on physics that

for example, that opinion everywhere: the Michelson-Morley describing

simply theory But out concluded of with the sentence, "Thus was relativity."12 at samples
Science
born the special
looking to be not
February understand
of Einstein's it turned correspondence, so simple. One occurs in his letter of such warning can therefore to F. G. Davenport: "One 9, 1954, in my personal experiment why struggle Michelson's I later found Indeed, and over again.13 He on well-established,
no role or at least no decisive role." played that Einstein had repeated his stance over had his own way, gone typically relying much older
and by Faraday, findings?experiments Bradley, were The Fizeau?saying, "They question enough."14 haunting itself: what Einstein make the leap when young suggests helped other, more earlier? Another fellow established physicists could have done it so much a copy of
example Marcel
of a key
document the
in the files was existence
a letter dated April

student from known become others which
14, 1901, from Einstein

Grossmann,
to his friend and

of which was
content Its eye-opening will Seelig's biography.15 clearer when we later reread that letter in the context of in the archive. Here we need only in the key sentence, the twenty-three-year-old theme that would is a wonderful seem guide feeling announces the beginner him through the rest of his to recognize the unity
overarching career: "It sense
[Einheitlichkeit]
experience,
of a complex of appearances, which,

to be separate things"
to direct
OUTLINING These also hasty
THE PARADOX first glimpses of the products
seemed
of a creative mind me to at first. incoherent, contradictory puzzling, They to reinforce seemed I have mentioned the paradox before,
which,
document main norms canons. a clue
in its simplest form, runs like this: It is not difficult

that, conventions of his from
to
time.
the start, Einstein rebelled proudly against as well as the social in science and political But it can be shown that at the same time he
also was
to large parts of the existing devoted cultural deeply a hindrance, or could Was this dichotomy it possibly be to understanding a new in Einstein's uniqueness way?
8
As various such
Gerald Holton
to Einstein's traits that rebelliousness, forms?where "rebelliousness" as disobedience to be revolutionary, in a phrase or is easily summarized in its a term for is shorthand to authority, a dissi nonconformist, "stubborn both in the
insubordination obstinately he applied
tendency
dent, defiant, as a mule."
and, That
public perception Einstein biography
image of Einstein the literature. and throughout written jointly
to himself, is embedded
an For example, the mathematician Banesh by
Hoffmann (who once worked with Einstein) and Helen Dukas herself is entitled Albert Einstein, Creator and Rebel}6 Lewis Feuer, in his 1974 book Einstein and the Generations of Science,
an Einstein in life and science whose whole attitude presented was milieu of the throng of young shaped by the countercultural revolutionaries of every sort who lived in Zurich and Bern around the view turn the of to Even the century.17 the New York Times seemed confirmation of the predictions of Einstein's general as a On November social threat. grave 16, theory the title length at Columbia "Jazz in Scientific that Charles Poor, University, added the newspaper World," a professor of celestial thought Einstein's "When is a circle success is space not a
relativity under 1919, reported mechanics
at
showed
that the spirit of unrest of that period had "invaded

the Times do are parallel the three when its own warning: lines meet? When
and science," curved? When circle? When right

of
angles? Why,
not equal to two of a triangle angles enters the world Bolshevism of science,
course."18
an overlooks concentrating only on that aspect of Einstein as a Einstein of his persona, different aspect namely, entirely even set innate within the limits his cultural traditionalist, by are combined If it can be proven that these opposites skepticism. But
in Einstein
from
(as I shall show), his type of rebellion would

of our rebels
be far
in art, image twentieth-century or who of folklore?rebels academe, parts poetry, typi politics, conventions of the bourgeoisie the social-political reject cally we shall see how Einstein's its cultural canon. Moreover, along with the modern him to clear the enabled nonconformity his ad of obstacles scientific great impeding ruthlessly ground even though the program of that advance itself ran along vance, one of the oldest lines. Skepticism, while traditionalist necessary, assertion of obstinate

was made not enough long to build been current the Temple that had of Isis, German to use
Science
the metaphor Einstein
among clear in a famous letter to his friend Mich?le crystal to apply Ernst Mach's had urged him now Besso, who skepti in attacking the infernal of difficulties cism, as he had earlier, I "You Einstein think know what quantum physics. replied: that
scientists.19
about it. [Mach's way]

can We only shall document exterminate
cannot give birth to anything

vermin."20 rebellious
living; it
harmful Einstein's
image in more detail; then examine the contradictory how the paradoxi element; and demonstrate cal tension between Einstein's rebellious and his side image contradictory was use in his work. In particular, we shall examine put to constructive the influence of this tension as he adopted with daring courage a set of that had a history reaching back to antiquity? personal presuppositions but for which, as he put it toMax Born, moral came only from on which presuppositions, support
his own "little finger."21 For these courageous his early success depended, he could and did draw on supporting allies? so far but far more powerful even than Einstein's little noticed little ideas he had absorbed finger?i.e., through his cultural roots, from what the "cultural soil" of the time.22 Merton had called, in another context, we to In the end, will be able and understand Einstein's program, method, results in a new way. INTO TERMINOLOGY
AN EXCURSION
a side excursion into the terminology and social stratifica Here, tion of Einstein's is necessary. milieu When about "the talking roots of Einstein's cultural science"?and when especially today, various macy definitions among of "culture" are anthropologists?a in the German brief for pri violently battling is needed of key summary context at the time of young the framework as well within to as the class and two its compan composite
concepts Einstein's which
operative
in order to understand formation, he and his work found their place,
which
main ions, notions
he belonged,
concepts Zivilisation that
including the aspirations of that class. The

are relevant and here are Kultur as the Bildung, and Bildungsb?rgertum. as well
of Kulturtr?ger
10
The between were
Gerald Holton
German language distinguished more sharply between
Kultur and Zivilisation

their equivalents.23 understood generally
than did the English or French languages

both Kultur and Zivilisation Although as supra in German-speaking Europe Zivilisation focused phenomena, typically technological context and identified "German Kultur?as first side, while Gottfried Herder? by Johann extreme In value-related products. with superficial soul."24 "French rea
collective individual, on the material and adapted referred cases, son," lated tion") acquire Kultur creative human in the German to the Zivilisation Kultur
spiritual was deep
with
At the level of the individual, the term Bildung

as "intellectual referred as a whole level?by development. at its best, to the attitudes
(loosely trans
or "educa formation," "self-refinement," a the process which could person through In turn, the nation's and products of Kultur. was sustained?and advanced Bildung at such gebildete And individuals. its upper, thus meant
much more
than job-related
albeit
training;
it defined
an ideal of
a chief tool for the young to acquire a for small fraction of the popu only Bildung was one's in the the neo lation, Gymnasium, study by beginning ten or so. The to school for ages humanistic secondary eighteen to be quite with students were expected thoroughly acquainted and thinkers Dichter und the great German Denker) poets (the as well as classics the from team now other Happily, has found of antiquity. cultures, especially Einstein's Collected preparing Papers A Munich scan quick of as well as schools a few mandatory of how the young to be
the curricula
at Einstein's
at the high school canon of the parts minds of Einstein there are
in Aarau.
a good gives impression were meant and his cohorts from
Initially readings at age age ten, and Greek are Ovid's Metamorphoses his only beloved Goethe, Schiller, and Dorothea" and next Einstein Italian; "History
shaped. enters at then Latin the Bible; Caesar's Wars Gallic and thirteen;
the supervision of read; then, under Ferdinand Ruess, poems teacher, Uhland, by "Hermann and others; Goethe's prose poem is studied with "Anabasis"; along Xenophone's
At Aarau, year, more Cicero, Schiller, Herder, Virgil. more encounters in German, of the classics and French, course a typical in in 1896 his German for reads: entry of literature from Lessing to the death of Goethe. Read
Einstein
G?tz von
and the Cultural Roots of Modern

. . . ," and the list ends with to contribute individuals
Science
Iphigenia
11
and
Torquato also was Such knowledge intended common bond between the gebildete curricula lar Gymnasium throughout tries, were of the
Berlichingen Tasso.
a to forging on simi raised coun
German-speaking
particular discipline they professional regardless later to study at the universities, whether law, medicine, or science?a un the humanities, for the common preparation in that of class their and conversations, letters, derstanding lectures, relations. across specialties placed and even in their intimate on Latin
popular
personal But while
the Gymnasium
heavy
emphasis
and Greek and other aspects of "pure" Bildung, it had little concern for the kind of practical knowledge offered in other
to schools without such attention types of German secondary classical for the so-called Realschulen instance, (where languages, Einstein's father Hermann and uncle Jakob, headed for electrical had received their secondary Needless education). engineering, a to say, those were with other schools dose of considered, their less valuable; culturally considered for university generally training to status the of achieve likely Kulturtr?ger. snobbism, not Here concept carrier it is crucial to understand term a subtlety a double to be were graduates un and hence in the German
The had both Kulturtr?ger. meaning: On the one hand, gebildete and pillar of Kultur. individu the graduates of Gymnasium who had gone on to als?chiefly seen as personally or even em the universities?were carrying its in the case of Kultur, and, bodying living among products, most the On the other the Kultur. ones, outstanding advancing hand, as a group they functioned or of the nation's {Tr?ger, "pillars") also as the chief project collective became a key supporters of Kultur.
the term Kulturtr?ger Although War after World I, it was only following a change illustrates. episode in the three-tiered
itself
favored; expressly voters "above the them," so that their
In 1910, electoral law so that Kulturtr?ger be a be put into smaller of they would pool class for which their wealth would qualify votes would count more.25
generally popular as the concept earlier, a bill in Prussia proposed
12
At
Gerald Holton
the level of social stratification, most of the Kulturtr?ger
could be identified as belonging

Bildungsb?rgertum The sociologist ponents wrote, owners sisted latter of in it had
to what
has been called the
members of the bourgeoisie). (the educated two com Karl Mannheim usefully distinguished the modern From the beginning, he bourgeoisie. two kinds on of social roots:"on those whose the only one hand the con the were the other capital
capital, in their education."26 formed
In nineteenth-century the Bildungsb?rgertum; their
Germany, social ranks
the pro symbolized by the certificates they had attained during cess of Bildung a and often also by within the hierar position chies of the civil service. Bildungsb?rger worked predominantly as physicians, in professions that required university training, as well as teachers and professors and other clergy, in service. officials government higher ex stratum Variants of this social of the Bildungsb?rgertum was in many its social clout isted but countries, particularly lawyers, and in nineteenth-century First, Germany. at the backward economy time, relatively in the governments of the multitude serving strong ries large or Bildungsb?rgertum the absence of man nationalism What chiefly tists, held the small over a nation-state focused favored the and on Kultur the economic in the context the of its of importance of German territo
of the prominence in Second, bourgeoisie. a centralized Ger economy, as the basis of the nation. was
conception the cultural and scholarly composers,
of Germany
output
thinkers,
and,
together perhaps and drama of its poets its scientists. One eventually,
thinks here of Goethe and Schiller, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich H?lderlin and Johann Joachim Winckelmann (the prophets of Friedrich Friedrich Schleiermacher, Hellenism), Schelling, Friedrich
Schlegel, as Bach, Thus, Immanuel Kant, Mozart, Haydn, elite the academic a twofold mission. this also did not, and Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Beethoven. Schubert, among One was as well
mentally their scholarship, for most
the foundation
the Kulturtr?ger had funda to help secure, through of German nationhood?though, keeping yet, qualify their distance from
of them,
involved
participation
in political
life?and
or not
so they tended to be looked

for that rank. The
up to by those who

other level was to help functionaries a cadre of gebildete prepare to adapt Fritz who were,
Science
13
individuals, high terminol Ringer's
"Mandarins."27 ogy, It is ironic that whenever mous, embassy received. Einstein In short, to use him traveled abroad or consulate A had
after becoming fa world Einstein, to lecture, an official from the local German to the foreign would office report secretly state would that available, and Germany would be wise report calls "Kulturpropaganda."2* as a Mandarin. the Kulturtr?ger them intellec anchor inclina material
in Berlin on how Einstein had behaved and how he had been

typical behaved now account, well enough, what yet one be put there
to conduct he might noted,
to use
As Mannheim selves a small tuals who in society, tions. They of
existed
among
group led marginal existences, critical and had rather could not or would
of "free-floating"
(freischwebende) lacked a well-defined and not even share rebellious the staid
comforts of the Bildungsb?rger
and disliked the whole
business
existence."29 At this rung of social up to the next "climbing we can connect status these with the and concepts point hopes of the Einstein Einstein's what young family, asking place was within The the had the cultural-social Einsteins could trace seventeenth order of the time. in southern side of the Germany to their origins On the male
century.30 family, they come town of Buchau, in Swabia, from the small largely some two thousand in midcentury which had of inhabitants, whom origins a few hundred chiefly Einstein's were in the Jews. On the maternal small Swabian were of similarly maternal left Koch grandfather Julius near Stuttgart and became quite wealthy for Cannstadt thus be mother, Pauline, virtue His of father by chiefly capital. in technical school and technical trade? them the engineer partner, Jakob? as part of Bildungsb?rgertum, one may doubt that though last the family a promise to Einstein's side, town the
Jebenhausen. Jebenhausen through longed Hermann's also and did
the grain trade. to the bourgeoisie
preparation like that of his brother not
and business
quite qualify not as Kulturtr?ger, certainly ever to that. But at Hermann gave any thought tree had sprouted, in the form of Albert Einstein,
14
Gerald Holton only the bright ladwould
grow into that higher social region?if behave as he should!

We can now toward reformulate
tendency ence to the products of Kultur. Was he just one of these rootless, on as a Kulturtr?ger, his mission rebellious intellectuals, reneging or did his sympathies lie with the true carriers and pillars of more a To make national culture? the question graphic, imagine scene floating defended in which intellectual from that Einstein intent a free stands of being accused on undermining and then is authority, The testimonials offered charge. by either first
the paradoxical tension of Einstein's rebelliousness and his adher social-political
side will
Einstein's
aid in understanding
behavior?and his
better the motivations
behind
science.
CHRONOLOGY A prosecuting
OF A CURIOUS REBELLION by of no
would find it easy to establish, both attorney as a as well portrait chronology psychosociological profile, as a rebellious I have Einstein individual his life. throughout or deep interest competence but as to the documentable and in searching facts, many for the possible are well details
causes;
known, his obsti the pattern Einstein made they form is persuasive. to speak until about age almost from birth, refusing nacy known two and a half, until he could or, as Erik Erikson remarked, to in sentences.31 whole When Albert reached begin speak sensibly school age, her memoir, for defiance penchant his sister Maja reported secular home environment, his accordingly including took that a different form. In to his in opposition to Albert decided young in all particu "obeyed the dietary ones.32 But
thoroughly a religious become Jew and lars the religious commands," encountered religion there, the
after he had advanced to theMunich

state-prescribed, interest Albert's to the conviction the state kind
Luitpold Gymnasium
courses came
and
compulsory in Judaism
on Jewish to an abrupt educa to a in
end. His
reading in scientific books
led him, as he put it in his

religious now turned solace
autobiography, being deceived
that organized
tion left him "with the impression

by through
that youth
lies." He he
is intentionally formed a
"positively
"suspicion
fanatic
against
[orgy of] free thinking,"

every of authority";
having
found

was given his destiny where But as one would and to him a present for him.33 would lead as expect, he found relief his self-study?a school of
Science
15 which
hint of
what he later called his "holy little book of Geometry,"

first
life too of
regimented
for his taste, and he dropped out of the Gymnasium

a half, to the surely much a About year later, he renounced some his citizenship having
at fifteen
teachers. When
as well. left his
he moved
he arrived enroll
for his final year of high school to Aarau, Switzerland,

as a thoroughly alienated youth, school,
his country, and his family; he even failed in his first attempt to
at the Swiss Polytechnic point that when Weber?on use the Polytechnic his he continued Institute. Once Albert got into the to the "in your face" rebelliousness, to his main professor, Friedrich Heinrich might well obstinately depend?he him called refused just to "Herr
whom obligatory
speaking his career title
and
Weber."
later. Einstein's lived on
In turn,Weber
lifestyle the margins
did nothing to help him in his job search

time was distinctly bohemian.34 He
at the
of bourgeois student
society Mileva
economically, who To letters be
socially, bore sure, their they
and (by the standards of the day and the place) morally; he lived
with his together first child before passionately were of one conventions Even find many fellow they were married loved each other, and saw Marie, in 1903. their
as
mind
they in Einstein's touches
in railing the against all around them.
show, they life and "philistine" one can
seeming not only with to accepted ideas in science, but arrogance, respect also to accepted Thus the and contained paper practice. style none of the expected or credits, footnote references only a men a course tion of his friend Mich?le who of would Besso, person be unknown We at first father Patent shall brilliance. research among physicists. come back to that magical first period of Einstein's as a gypsy, who often characterized himself Einstein, only temporary teaching jobs, and those tended to
of 1905 great paper of that self-confident
on relativity, and defiance
found of his Office.
end abruptly and noisily;

friend Marcel By 1909,
finally, after the intercession of the
at the he found Grossmann, refuge to be sought he began after by universi
16
ties and
Gerald Holton
in 1914 accepted a call
to the University in Berlin and to freedom from Academy, chiefly gain teaching to avoid In fact, he managed out and other obligations. turning more a own than of his his lifetime.35 As single Ph.D. during the Prussian
director of the Institute for Physics, his record shows that his
model was to pay minimal to his directo attention leadership even new or to draw to rial duties, the recruitment of members "encases "Red he explained, the tape," ing up regulations.36 a met like of the bands When he first mummy." John D. spirit of on how notes Jr., the two men compared "I put my faith in organization," Rockefeller came Einstein's "I put my faith in intuition," reply.37 war out in August broke of 1914, When ninety-three to get said; of the
Rockefeller, things done.
chief intellectuals of Germany published significant title "Appeal to the World of Culture,"
military. counterdeclaration ever, it was four the
a manifesto
with
the
supporting
a pacifist for his part, Einstein, supported to the entitled how Europeans"; "Appeal never published, a grand attracted total of having
never But the war Einstein signatures. throughout only a secret of his pacifist in made and cosmopolitan and attitude, an increasingly care to hostile Germany he took express publicly state in Palestine. He his support for the founding of a Jewish also made as indeed essays contrary it plain a to himself again as a Jew and regarded as in several shown of course, person; religious his idea of religion was book Ideas and Opinions, a Spinozistic It was establishment. any religious that he "cosmic in one when and he put religion," "I am of his letters: World about War II broke his posi a deeply
in his
that he called pantheism tion simply and seriously religious After authorities the contrary,
unbeliever."38 to America his move kept he was Einstein
uninformed monitored
nuclear
out, the research. On and was the
carefully
by the military
FBI, which
Einstein sonally whole history
considered
him a security risk. The FBI files on

per physicist's rebel.
are voluminous; J. Edgar Hoover apparently had to be watched?the convinced that Einstein showed that here was a really dangerous

THE SELECTIVE REVERENCE One could add for even more FOR TRADITION to the side of nature. But
Science
17
measures attorney
Einstein's
weight iconoclastic
the balance
that
if now
the defense
the accused might was only for
counterargument rebelliousness selective defense
some moments a is given for rebuttal, Einstein's be introduced that by noting the story; his half the other half was
tradition. the counsel for the Indeed, us a to to it consider of hallmark urge genius might even relish what seems to us such apparent and perhaps tolerate contradiction. well For example, there were one might significant be more since all limits lenient to about the offenses classics system because cited. For Einstein's leaving his of science was by no it devoted indoctri
reverence
Gymnasium and literature means nation. beloved only itself not different
he preferred early, reading on his own. After all, the school its pupils?not by to educational goals but there were least also
in variations systems an was official Prussian of parts Germany, publication in setting forth the plan and aims for the upper schools typical a was of 1892, when Einstein It announced, Gymnasiast. to that in religion in German "Instruction and history, is, next Although ethically schools. the most
to political school among
in the organism of our higher significant to is The be accomplished task here extraordinarily met teachers who difficult and can be properly only by those warm hearts of our youths for the Ger up the impressionable man German rely language, on for spiritual their deeper and its his of our language understanding also being borne up by enthusiasm for the treasures tory, while and being filled with patriotic of our literature, spirit."39 Clearly, of the German the destiny And such teachers greatness. and the people, must be able to
and Kultur were here instrumentalized in the service of Bildung the state. To young it smelled of militarism. Einstein, when the public and his fellow scientists later hailed Moreover, him as the great scientific Einstein took revolutionary, always pains had to deny this label. He emphasized of over and over again that
his work was

He would have
firmly embedded
an evolution appalled been
in the tradition of physics and

it, rather than a revolution. that a few years after his
to be considered
to know
18
death Einstein.
Gerald Holton
a philosopher would assert that a wall of incommensura
bility existed between
the world
of Newton
and the world
of
one: to a central in comparison But points such as these pale to in Einstein's interest and devotion the liter lifelong European to Ger and especially cultural ary and philosophical tradition, man in which Kultur. That allegiance, literary and philosophical his science was had been fostered embedded, clearly early in his childhood. home While the classics of music were offered in their Einstein's father would assemble the family by his mother, to read aloud from works in the evening around the lamplight by or Heinrich as Friedrich such writers Heine.40 The fam Schiller of general and spirit This was and social intense and and
in the movement itself as participating ily perceived in this way, of mind, the uplifting character, Bildung of the B?rgertum. the rising portion that characterized especially legitimized assimilation. After all, true for
its Jewish Kultur advocated segments. a vehicle of and also provided emancipation, during for the We his scientifically of most creative and
period
literary discussed times
in Bern, Einstein
classics. at
formed with
two young
friends an
"academy"
self-study have the
scientific, philosophical, list of the books they read sometimes Avenarius, convened Karl
their meetings, Spinoza, Hume,
which Mach,
several Pearson,
a week:
Riemann, Dedekind, Helmholtz, Clifford, Amp?re, as well as Sophocles Stuart Mill, and Kirchhoff, not have Cervantes and Dickens.41 They would agree To that of the cultural milieu, ignorant with all they read. illuminate Albert at Kant's even if they a single thirteen did
Poincar?, John and Racine, wanted not to be necessarily
the point with but the tender age of philosophy, his contacts He in a
know example: We was to introduced the Critique of Pure at the Einstein guest book at the
Immanuel Reason,
through home, Max Talmey.42 sixteen and enrolled Institute of a philosopher's again, Kant.44
starting with a regular with reread Kant's lecture course He wrote
on Kant
while
age of at the
Technical
in Zurich.43 analysis
of Kant, surely
a lengthy review book in Princeton and at the Institute of the overwhelming influ
his favorite topic of discussion with his friend Kurt G?del was,
Einstein knew

ence of Kant on, for
Science
19
phi at all.
the late-nineteenth-century example, materialism. arguing against losophers a Kantian Einstein All did not make this, typically, with Kantian While very sympathizing categories?and remember dental arguing: but that Kant had ries45?Einstein idealism "[W]e objected "Unity" to the central listed
likely to as the first of his catego transcen point of Kant's
the existence by denying do not conceive of the
a priori, of the synthetic as unalterable 'categories'
(conditioned by the nature of the understanding)
[as Kant did],
as (in the logical to be sense) free conventions. appear They a priori only the positing of catego insofar as thinking without as is in general ries and of concepts be as impossible would a in The vacuum."46 essential for him was, point breathing the "free of the individual freedom, play" imagination, again, within Thus mous. the empirical boundaries was reverence Einstein's into loved the traditional books, and He the world has set for us. even while was enor selective, carefully environment cultural his constant
his outreach
they were
companions.
A list of only those books found in the Einstein household that had been published up to 1910 includes theworks of Aristophanes,
Boltzmann, collected Ludwig works B?chner, of Heine books of Cervantes, (two Kant, William Clifford, Dante,
Richard Dedekind, Dickens, Dostoyevski,

editions),
Frederick Hebbel,
Helmholtz, Homer,
the
Alexander
Cosmos),
von Humboldt
many
(both the collected works
and his
Schopenhauer, Twain.47 But
Johann another on the exchange of letters between a separate volume of the tragedy part of our story. significant Some of those have books been have such they may of turmoil though aspiring heirlooms;
Mach, Nietzsche, Lessing, Mark and, for good measure, Spinoza, Sophocles, are what looms works the collected of largest von a Goethe: edition and Wolfgang thirty-six-volume on two one of twelve volumes, volumes his plus optics, Goethe Faust, and which and also Schiller, a will become that in the list, an to
early dates of publication others must have been lost
and separations. But this migrations a of the total indicates part only library, roughly what want member of the culture-carrying class would
the various
know about. And their schooling had prepared them, willing
or
20
Gerald Holton
of higher examinations. culture seriously, not least
not, to take such exemplars as preparation for school Einstein's required
courses
at the Polytechnic earlier; to be a high-school he took teacher, physics science differential courses, including required
were in high school mentioned was Einstein where Institute, training all the obvious ana equations, he most wanted
what and mechanics?although lytical geometry, to learn about, Maxwell's he had to study on electromagnetism, In his first year, he enrolled in two additional his own. optional as noted one on the philosophy of Kant, and one courses, earlier, entitled had been "Goethe, Werke and Weltanschauung." at least an outline No doubt?he captured. I think we now have complex
Einstein's
intellectual-cultural
of young of the gestalt inner life and an idea of
his perception
Kulturtr?ger?to or private pulsory found a satisfying
of his quite
which reading, spiritual had
individualistic
education, carried him
place
both
among
the
com
his whole
through in fact he and where
home.
TOWARD The tion
A VERDICT rebelliousness been and his atten is not
the obvious presented, a sort of split are dealing with seen two different is no; we have The answer per personality? uses structure one mental that the of coherent appar spectives to support each other. parts ently conflicting are of three kinds. the apparent The bonds between opposites conclusion that in Einstein we The strain Sturm had first lies in the presence call of an alternative subcurrent in the
evidences?Einstein's opposing now to tradition?having
Kultur
itself. As
that we may
I have hinted, Kultur

a "tradition unstable and
carried within
itself a
it
in fact potentially und Drang become
which made of rebellion," The anti-Enlightenment and volatile. products the had part ideal of the earlier period of the tradition-bound, of the active, creative,
and Romantic remained
canonized
late nineteenth-century individual unbounded the evocative such and
Kultur-, continued Max Weber
phrase a person the plain and simple had to accept that holds the fibers of one's obey the demon
to be championed. Employing used in a different context, duty very "to find life"?to

strive for authenticity The purest sacrifice.48 who and intensity of of feeling, individuality expression led an often
Science
heroism was
21
and
even
embodied
and, by tormented, marginal, or even demonic existence but standards, failing saw far and created the reach of who nonetheless beyond things were enemies Those the for comfortable philistines philistines.49 the Sturm These often time as they were und Drang authors, in Kultur, strains the rebellious manner. in a complementary occurred two were for Einstein. and the traditional, Those formed by at the same while
in the genius, conventional
to flout convention, prepared the cultural revering outstanding figures of all times. Though as loyal mem to dissent, themselves they also understood willing of exceptional minds that bers of a supratemporal community this Kultur existed This must stained in a universe was here not be taken from mixture to parallel considered these history elements that of the philistine masses. contradictory, was to record of rebelliousness note although later in blood later broke
of what
letters: When their
in culture, away counterparts stabilizing they flamed a time in twentieth-century into the transforma up for Germany tion and destruction of Kultur Einstein itself?as and so many to experience. But during his formative this years, was nature of Kultur still functioned, it and complementary Einstein what needed for his work and life. precisely seem bonds those of the three The second connecting others ingly contradictory in his approach obstacles clearing the aid of and tools papers centrifugal of Einstein aspects lies, unsurprisingly, to physics, in his manner both of radically and in how he achieved his insights with from the one of traditional can almost Einstein's culture. watch spirit at his Looking the seemingly being used and were
letters, tendencies
tamed to his service. I found the first hint in the letter he wrote in the spring of 1905 to his friend Carl Habicht.50 In
a single major what of was Einstein paragraph, was he works then known evidenced of as poured out an First completing. as the discovery of in the photoelectric detailed small bodies accounting on his of list nature Another is
is now
light, his
the quantum effect.
zigzag large
prediction movement to be
and seen
of explanation in suspension a microscope,
a random, are that in which he
enough
through
22
traced
Gerald Holton
the cause in exact detail of to the bombardment referred the last became of of
these visible
of molecules. Brownian
bodies
(The
by the invisible
existence was he
submicroscopic
chaos
to as the the
movement,
such motion, And known.) to was what
papers-in-progress
referred
of Einstein's presentation original relativity, as an to Habicht work only evolutionary tion of the teachings time." of space and
that identifying a "modifica act, To achieve number with that, of the
in the published
which had been prominent nonchalant the ideas of that showed warring worldviews, and one; Each of achievement,
paper
he casually
discarded
of a large a
the ether,
the lives preoccupying more for than physicists remark the the that basic the it was absolutes
century, dismissed "superfluous"; of space, and simultaneity; time, differences between the two great and mechanistic into a new, relativistic derived E=mc2. in they 1905, always is a dazzling have seemed
camps, were finally, these
electromagnetic dissolved easily as an afterthought, completed is more,
papers, and, what
to be in three completely rid myself of the thought

ences published missing An letter 1952, very something common one
different fields. But I could not that behind their obvious differ
was after motivating the other. to Habicht. at last von in an Laue unpublished in January To theory, is to put which it these Something articles, was
rapidly, right in that exuberant letter was lead found important had Einstein's has written the which indicates
Einstein
to Max hidden
connection.51
briefly, that
study an
of Maxwell's
had
him
led him to the theory of relativity,

radiation atomistic
had also convinced

(that quan in the show
say, fluctuation structure, tum) exhibiting phenomena fluctuation should radiation and that these pressure, in the Brownian the and three movement of a tiny suspended separate fireworks?relativity, movement?had Brownian originated the
up Thus tum, mon
mirror. quan in a com
cartridge. once is understood, Einstein's this Moreover, to the problem in each of these diverse papers as having essentially the same style
approach could be and com
recognized
Einstein and the Cultural Roots

ponents. did not facts, stating metries as being Unlike start the his or latest other most with news other a review from with
of Modern
of the new
Science
time, Einstein
23
physicists of puzzling the
dissatisfaction
laboratory, what seemed others He
experimental but rather to him would asym dismiss
by
principle
merely of great
that incongruities in nature. aesthetic generality,
then to
analogous
proposed axioms the
Euclid
book. as one faction; way, the there each five he
had placed
Then of at Einstein the deduced the
at the head
showed
of that
case his in his a
"holy"
how original to
geometry
remove, dissatis offhand bear out
in each
proposed
consequences, and end, briefly a few experiments from
seemingly that would Once
predictions was only paper was
Most
following theory. one Einstein, not three. the motivation fundamental significant, earlier revealed a complex things." really in what for the of Thus,
more
behind in the to nature be
years which he pation unity separate formal which bodies, in the of
same one he had announced the very to Marcel the letter Grossmann would rest become of his life: which on the his "To chief preoccu
in science
appearances the paper the
recognize . . . seem
quantum
of light begins with

difference have physicists and Maxwell's so-called
a typical
about
sentence:
theoretical
"There
is a deep
understanding and other gases ponderable of electromagnetic processes theory vacuum."52 That is to say, energy of pal
between
pable
but
bodies
is concentrated,
spreads out,
and not
infinitely
divisible;
point and
as a light wave decreases. constantly Why light that in should energy? if there show
its energy
at a given both matter
not to atomicity apply movement The Brownian is chaotic of in motion, classical in effect
article
declared fluctuation it must
spontaneous thermodynamics, of visible removed and In the mass, the
the microcosm up
also the
the macrocosm
bodies. old
And barriers
paper relativity between and space netic and mechanistic papers opposites, endeavored removing
time, energy worldviews.
electromag all these end, apparent unify between them.
to bring and together the illusory barriers
24
Gerald Holton
PRESUPPOSITIONS I studied the more and correspondence of this I to became his courage impressed by in often all available evidence, against or ideas which presuppositions, guiding papers in a non-Kantian other major scientists, tendency but to as sense, i.e., freely I have repeat to place one's the
THEMATIC The longer
scientist, his confidence, place a few fundamental he called In found early chosen. edly bets
"categories" studying the same on a few which of first
courageous nontestable I refer themata rule
simplicity, harking of philosophy: "Nature is pleased not with and affects the pomp of superfluous simplicity, wrote to Einstein causes."53 veritable the concept of hymns as a in in it and he exemplified his science, simplicity guide own lifestyle.54 Another of his most thematic was presuppositions in 1905, into physics of his readers surely wrote It has since become Yet and physics. symmetry, considering it off as an one of the thema
suppositions, an example case, to Newton's back
pre motivating highly In Einstein's themata. be
would
a concept he it basic?when aesthetic, fundamental was ness plains his in
introduced
optional ideas
choice. in modern
another
belief the
why
essentially utter belief the saw field his
complete ex of natural which description phenomena, as final Niels not accept Einstein Bohr's could universe. Einstein's dice-playing probabilistic, in the continuum that was another him from such enchanted thema, the moment as in he
in strict
Newtonian
causality
There
concepts first magnet are a few But that set of themata themata are
obstinately. Because the are are those the infinite
in boyhood. compass more to which themata we must ask that, beyond are not selected a priori chosen held with, question
he also clung a key question: or innate but choosable, some at random from I do because the not believe. are Or rein
themata? possible so confidently
That
forced milieu? be
in resonance by, and was That the initial in a real case. tested
they scientist's cultural now it can but here,

For tant will tion tion in a felt to serve whether of that purpose, Einstein?that as one of thema that was unity,
Science
25
the prototypical in science themata Einstein's unities three to by in Nature
impor wholeness? unification, to answer the ques example be to of to reinforced by the the presupposi in the is evidenced As de he put (mein unin last ones it he
the most
cultural motivation
milieu.55 finding for his of 1916 driven
may dedication at work
letter always
papers great the astronomer "my paper need That on
1905.
Willem
Sitter,
Verallgemeinerungsbed?rfnis).56 from his first terrupted
generalize" need continued to his
capillarity even
on finding
gravity and
a general
unified
field theory
and
that would
provide a new
join
in
electromagnetism, of quantum terpretation phenomena?as a path different from along although had led him from the preoccupation he at first theory That theories Alexander for called of typically relativity. unquenchable other many the ized
may yet happen, In between, that to what special theory his.57 the general to find unifying
verallgemeinerte, desire scientists
self-imposed, had possessed
feeling tion sometimes gous sure, seem
von Humboldt, who a unity of Nature"); led Einstein
celebrated however, as had astray,
(for example, in 1828 the "deep presupposi Galileo's analo this
of circular motion. To be obsession with the primacy some science is done researchers who by splendid no need as I to have of thematic presuppositions, case to paint in other Nor have do I want found studies. all as having in scientists German been dream of the up caught as Pauline Ger of for Mazumdar's unity; study example, man them But matic immunologists to oppose my subject acceptance even from lent his there showed, the "Unitarians."58 is Einstein, of unity and were it "Pluralists" is clear was that one among his of the the
or wholeness with fields, T?nnies?to
demons
He ars
that had got hold of the central

a great and name?along of variety Ferdinand
fiber of his soul.

schol Hu
other thirty-two from David ranging
bert
Felix
and Ernst Mach

Klein,
to Jacques
Loeb,
Sigmund
the publication,
Freud,
as
26
Gerald Holton
Aufruf!
Eine umfassende Weltanschauung auf Grund des Tatsachenstoffes vorzu bereiten, den die Einzelwissenschaften aufgeh?uft haben, und die Ans?tze dazu zu n?chst unter den Forschern selbst zu verbreiten, istein immerdringenderes Bed?rfnis vor allem f?r die Wissenschaft geworden, dann aber auch f?r unsere Zeit ?ber haupt, die dadurch erst erwerben wird, was wir besitzen. Doch nur durch gemeinsame Arbeit vieler kann das erreicht werden. Darum rufenwir alle philosophisch interessiertenForscher, auf welchen wissenschaftlichen Gebieten sie auch bet?tigt sein m?gen, und alle Philosophen im engeren Sinne, die zu haltbarenLehren nur durch eindringendes Studium der Tatsachen der Erfahrung selbst zu gelangen hoffen, zum Beitritt zu einer Gesellschaft f?r positivistische Philosophie auf. Sie soll de? Zweck haben, alle Wissenschaften untereinander in lebendige Verbindung zu setzen, ?berall die vereinheitlichenden Begriffe zu ent wickeln und so zu einer widerspruchsfreien Gesamtauffassung vorzudringen. Um n?here Auskunft-wende man sich an den mitunterzeichneten Herrn Dozent A. H. Baege. Friedrichshagen b. Berlin, Waldowstra?e 23. ?. D1?58tb, Prof. Dr. einstellt, u. philos. Schriftsteller Fabrikbesitzer Prag. Benshelm. Prof. Dr. Beim, Prof. Dr. S. Jreud, Prof.Dr. T?ppl, Wien. Geh.Hofrat, Dresden. M?nchen. Prof. Dr. 3en$en, Prof. Dr. rjilbcrt, Prof.Dr. Derusalem, Wien. Geh. Reg.-Rat. G?ttingen. G?ttingen. Prof. Dr. B. Hern, Prof. Dr. f. Hleln, Prof. Dr. Hammerer, u. Inspekteur Geh. Geh. Reg.-Rat, G?ttingen. Reg.-Rat, Charlottenburg. Obergeneralarzt Berlin. der IISanttats-Inspektlon, Prof. Dr. v. tuxt, Prof. Dr. toe?, Prof. Dr. tampreebt, Geh.Justizrat, Berlin. New-York. Geh. Rockefeller-Institute, Hotrat, Leipzig. Prof. Dr. 6. ?. mailer, Prof. Dr. E.mad), Geh. Wien. Hotrat. Reg.-Rat. G?ttingen. Prof. Dr. Poioni?, Prof. Dr. Rhumblcr, 3o$efPopper, Wien. Berlin. Hann.-M?nd?n. K?nigl. Landesgeologe, Ingenieur, Prof. Dr. Roux, Prof.Dr. ?. e. S. Schiller, Prof. Dr. Ri&bert, a. Bonn. Geh. Halle S Christi Geh. Medizinalrat, Medizlnalral, College. Corpus Oxford. Prof. Dr. Ritterv. Seelifier, Prof. Dr. ttfnnies, Prof. Dr. Schuppe, Breslau. M?nchen. Kiel. Geh. Reg.-Rat, Prof. Dr. Ulernieke, Prof. Dr.Wiener, Prof.Dr. Uerworn, u. Oberrealschuldirektor Geh. Bonn. Holrat, Leipzig. Frlvat-Dozent, Braunschwelg.. Prof. br. Gh. Ziehen. Geh. Wiesbaden. Medizinalrat, m. R. Baege, Dozent d-Freien Hochschule Berlin Friedrichshagen. Prof. Dr. PetjOldt, u. Prlv.-Dozent, Oberlehrer Spandau.
Figure
of the Gesellschaft for the formation 2: Appeal Deutsche (Courtesy of Wilhelm-Ostwald-Archiv, zu Berlin.)
f?r positivistische Philosophic der Wissen-schaften Akademie
early
calling develop,
as 1912,
for the across
of a public
establishment all branches the new
manifesto
of of a new scholarship,
(Aufruf,
society one
figure
2)
to aiming set of uni be "to
fying
ideas and unitary

paragraph,
conceptions.
Society's
As the Aufruf put it in

aim would join
its second
all fields of learning [alleWissenschaften]
together in an organic

association, to advance Yet Einstein barest if
of Modern
Science
ideas, and
27
thus
to develop the unifying everywhere to a non-contradictory comprehensive to a few themata it was allegiance in launching into from territory, the phenomena, what to and stick with themata, the various we make strands closest Einstein's uncharted
conception."59 that supported often with the the provided them through we have pur with belief contained the
encouragement to adopt these courage is where thick and thin? This sued will can converge, show where
contact thematic of unity themata, is more
"cultural soil" that helped to feed his scientific imagination,

one unity the resonance and between in science the belief the case in the primacy
for
in
in certain literary works

I can demonstrate one and set of major not applies
to which he had allegiance. While

for only one of his the case made works, scientist. and
here
for
literary only to this particular ROOTS OF UNITY?A noted that Einstein of his trade attitude
general
THE CULTURAL So far, we scientists, have who have on
POET POINTS THE WAY drew on the work of other during his
the tools his
that he assembled as a gebildete of the state Other useful
education?so
discussed refused of
joyfully by himself,
personal to be a mere functionary and destiny. imagination
less so in his schooling. We

individual, and kept his
freedom
for pieces of the interesting Renn
the puzzle have also been made point by Robert in popular that Einstein's reading an overview and that this of science
proposed, Schulmann scientific
suggestions for example, and J?rgen as a boy books
consisted largely of ones that did not dwell on details but instead
provided standing, ten upon as a coherent experience predisposed the big questions rather than the small pieces.60 All this was necessary; but it was not enough. His wide read in humanistic works science?where the ing beyond Bildung to lead to continued his formative self-refine years was during ment Arnold's understand culture on through to Matthew study of the "best works," analogous at what of culture?hinted else was needed concept genius.61 From the list of icons impressed greatly indeed one who, with Einstein, Friedrich of under corpus him early to fas
to
his particular at the time who author,
of high Imust focus was
just one
Schiller,
28
among Goethe.62 mind, influence eral, There
Gerald Holton
von revered: Johann universally Wolfgang on not is Since Goethe everyone's certainly today to convey in a few words Iwill his unimaginable attempt on educated at the time, not merely on German in particular.63 scientists are two major parts to that influence. Germany's arguably poet. He began his long and was not a modern Germany backward was most Germans One was in gen the fact the most
but
that Goethe productive we noted, it was ways politically pire.
and accomplished career when, as fruitful state. in many Indeed,
fragments, In 1775, when the twenty-six-year-old was an it still Weimar, impoverished duchy, ful presence intelligence, first, von there was and
Britain it was with and France; compared a of about three hundred motley assembly impotent, Em Roman the dying Holy large and small, within Goethe arrived in youth one of its biggest assets. His skill, possibly to show had begun itself even in his humanity still linked to the Sturm und Drang that were the irreverent at age revolutionary and twenty-four, drama G?tz the romantic and his own
fiery works for example, tradition,
written Berlichingen, one year later. The written The Sorrows of Young Werter, on a legendary drama was based G?tz early sixteenth-century a bold and impudent it who made adventurer German knight, no was one to to all, in strong that he known beholden language, novel Kaiser but God, find it delightful Maximilian, that during and his own Einstein's self. independent examina final Matura (I
on G?tz, was in the subject the very of German tion, his essay individual of the independent embodiment spirit.64) In his early of apparent too, was a complex Goethe, opposites. as the foremost German himself he had established works spokes man for the Sturm Romantic revolt, of those contradictions (one und Drang while still movement, the forerunner of the to Enlightenment ideas adhering from our level below). when viewed
And he was still in his twenties when he began work on the first
his superb into which he poured the tragedy of his Faust, and mutually skills and all the varied aspects antagonistic poetic like much of his writings, soul. It was, of his maturing part of a an it had but strong grip on the especially "great confession," part German imagination, on the upward-striving bourgeoisie as well

as the elite; the nearest of Dante's the analog epic Faust that comes on intellectuals "has to mind
Science
29
is the indelible
impression Lewes remarked, pathos, and irony."65 dictum form tenet" same Dr. "To wisdom,
tragedy melody,
in Italy. As G. H. element: every wit, doubt, magic,
farce, mystery,
reverence,
In his early period, Goethe himself, like his Faust, accepted the
live, not to learn." But this rebellion took own. Goethe's as he matured, to Einstein's similar or individualism: was in individuality the belief some of the social conventions a free person, defying time revering Faustus the geniuses of the sixteenth of history and legend, a special "central one was but which at the for
him (according to Goethe's

Johann Mohammed,
biographers)
included the original
century, Prometheus, Spinoza, von G?tz and the original Caesar, knight as saw God and Nature Like Goethe Spinoza, Berlichingen.66 two aspects and in that belief, he of the same basic reality, too, and other scientists. German shared the spirit of Einstein Among Goethe became lives.67 a fascinating But was and inexhaustible be noted imaginative to that point in a moment. a second of Goethe's power aspect return and scientist on
Kulturtr?ger, part of their I will that serious
it must his
productive of the subjective investigation impression in his first scientific of the presence of an intermaxilliary paper, Ernst Haeckel of what later called bone in man; his early version
certain
as a position as such the topics, of color; the discovery,
an evolutionary his concept of the metamorphosis mechanism; and other such matters. Thus Goethe has an honored of plants, even in the and modern Dictionary of Scientific place Biography, of his contributions, the huge controversy about others despite
especially on the theory of colors (the Zur Farbenlehre of 1810),

fourteen of the Weimar volumes activities?totaling as a figure to edition of his collected works?added his standing in all its dimensions. the best of culture representing To be sure, Goethe's science was that of the poet chiefly one For "scientific" entitled essay, early philosopher. example, his scientific "Study being Goethe after and goes of Spinoza," begins with is one the sentence and the of was completeness on to ponder the main point of concept from same"; this, But the infinite.68 to argue for the "The
significantly,
the meaning of that work
30
primacy
Gerald Holton
of unity and for the wholeness "in thinking, war he waged for sorry and misguided on Newton's color ideas, against especially in terms of Goethe's be understood philosophical The example, he phenomena, unity of man For the quantification missed thought, and nature in the and the whole explanation subdivi point of in scientific
every living being." over four decades theory, must and poetic beliefs. sion of of natural the organic
as qualities, for what he regarded such phenomena, particularly as colors. This is a prominent of much of Goethe's whole aspect the theme of unity, wholeness, the interconnection of all corpus: are nature. main Those that informed both parts of conceptions his science and his tioned, ity."69 "The nature has men epics. As one of his commentators in dual of the entire [is this]: unity cycle even his belief in the existence of an original, an archetypal and so on?all man, (Urpflanze), called of years the the Ionian Fallacy, for one looking Even the diversity of phenomena.70 was before his death, he immensely
It pervaded
plant archetypal of what has part
been
explanation overarching two at age eighty-one,
excited by news
associated biology, himself and
that in France,
with
the biologist
of unity
St. Hilaire
at the base
had
of
concept
he exclaimed:
our is all intercourse with Nature, if we merely What occupy not individual material and do feel selves with the breath parts, to every part its direction, of the spirit which and prescribes an means of inherent law! orders or sanctions every deviation by I have exerted myself in this great question for fifty years. At first I was alone, then I found support, and now at last, to my great joy, I am surpassed Much has been written by congenial about minds.71
work, aspects of Goethe's contain names scientists would
and not
the interest among scientists in various A list of such only in Germany. Bernhard Stallo, Wilhelm
such as Johann
Ostwald, the physiologist Arnold Adolphe Berthold, the neurophysiolo gists Rudolf Magnus and Emile du Bois-Reymond, the botanist Gottlieb
Haberlandt, the physical chemist Gustav Tammann, the bacteriologist
Robert Koch, the psychologist Georg Elias M?ller,

scientist William who, although Henry Fox Talbot. not German by descent, was A curious
and the English
Tesla, so caught up in the German
case is that of Nicola

style of Bildung knew the whole Of scientist actually course had that he claimed, and sometimes Faust by heart?all of Goethe's not
Science
31
that he demonstrated, lines.72 12,110
a shared Tesla's enthusiasm. everyone Many to to give service dominance while Goethe's lip ex for a down-to-earth, pragmatic, properly fighting But wherever these readers turned, style of thought. were to like school on, they, Einstein, likely days liable to absorb and sympathize Goethe and so were central in Goethe's the longing for unity, work, point of all parts of nature. As for the interconnectivity
perimental from their encounter with that
for wholeness,
Walter Moore
put it in his biography of Erwin Schr?dinger,
"All
German-speaking . . . Goethe. They for be the unity encountered
of the imbued with [were] spirit youth in their youth Goethe's have absorbed feeling of Goethe's could of Nature."73 poetry Fragments
not only in the popular lectures of routinely, or in the exhortations of politicians, but even other Kulturtr?ger on science in in the lectures the of and textbooks itself, writings von Helmholtz, as Erwin Hermann such Schr?dinger, physicists
Wilhelm Wien,
third readers from volume on the
and Max
Born. Thus Arnold Sommerfeld,

on Theoretical theory relativity of
in the
of his Lectures
My a textbook in whom Boltzmann's each
general Faust, part II.74 favorite example
his Physics, a quotation off with sends
by one of Einstein's 1900 called he had Vorlesungen by a short to reader for they free with
occurs on two pages of that ubiquity one own scientific predecessors, "quite magnificent."75 Ludwig der Elektricit?t ?ber Maxwells Theorie
und des Lichtes was published

preceded every German
in two parts (1891 and 1893),

Boltzmann the origin could of the count lines on he
epigraph.
there, quoted Faust tragedy. My no longer, I may which add I do not
recognize to the referred of sour
translation
myself"; celebrated the next, most and programmatic what holds the world "and that I may perceive
innermost."
know
early pages is: "That the first passage to teach others have that labor, Boltzmann does not even have to lines of Faust: in its
of Goethe's
together
to the passage in refers Boltzmann's second given epigraph Faust has just opened the book of Nostradamus, italics below where even to the force that holds the world there a guide seeking
32
Gerald Holton
gazes at the wondrous "Sign of the Macrocosm"
he together; and exclaims: Ha!
as I gaze what rapture suddenly begins to flow through all my senses! Did some god inscribe these signs that quell my inner turmoil, fill my poor heart with joy, and with mysterious force unveil the natural powers all about me? Am I a god? I see so clearly now! In these
creative
. . .
lines' perfection
nature spread out
I behold
before my soul. . . .
How
and work
as one all things interweave and live each in the other.76
meant to to the God-like of course By referring signs Boltzmann the of Maxwell's indicate Maxwell's summary syn equations, thesis of electricity, and optics. The equations relat magnetism, and magnetic field terms are indeed ing the electric stunningly beautiful when in their written scope, simplicity, in modern form:77 and symmetry, particularly
curl E=-^-p-
ot
div E = 0
curl B =
But that in fact back in both to the
?c PSt
Boltzmann. Boltzmann's
div B = 0
It is quite of Goethe's doubt significant lines are
enchanted
memory, tend to be taken errors are really common culture. But literary Consider first part through never the allusions
epigraphs He just a bit wrong.78 going back to school
version no
from quoting such verses constantly, days. Used for granted and get fuzzy at the edges. Boltzmann's one sign that Goethe's lines have become part of We were of must dig a bit deeper to the see why such scientific reader. to of the
too was
mind.
context
so meaningful those lines, Having Faust's
near
of the Faust every major
tragedy. specialty,
the beginning worked painfully thirst
his way at its for knowledge
Science
33
Figure
3: Rembrandt's Rembrandt's
etching, Etchings
called (London:
"Dr.
Faustus" Press,
Phaidon
From (detail). 1972).
L. M?nz,
ed.,
deepest
level had
not
been
satisfied more
reductionist)
studies?any to turn secret of that
by these than were of
(let us say, separate of the the signers
1912 Appeal
Even discover if he has the
for unity throughout all sciences and scholarship.

to the realm the world's ancient Faust must the magical, coherence. Nostradamus's
book offers him the blinding revelation

the Macrocosmos, tween the part man
in terms of the Sign of
Boltzmann why the synthesis of large parts of physics.79 which express resonance is the strong between The main here point a or Faustian drive toward unified fundamental Goethean
be of the connection symbol nature is and and the whole, (figure 4). This to Maxwell's connects the passage equations, the un
34
Gerald Holton
of nature, derstanding symbolized by the Sign of the Macrocosmos, and that of the analogous ambition of Boltzmannian scientists and their pupils: the search for one coherent single, totally a Weltbild all encompassing worldpicture, phenomena. Physical to progress of ever fewer, too, yearned science, by the discovery ever more and laws, so that fundamental concepts encompassing one might at last what Max in the title of achieve Planck called,
his 1908 essay, "Die Einheit des physikalischen Weltbildes."80

some physical scientists Indeed, one single equation, one world of the Macrocosmos still work equation, toward will be found the day when that will
subsume all the diversity of physical phenomena.
Then the Sign
our gaze. will indeed stand before in 1901 on capil with his first very Einstein, starting publication was an a to committed of such Faustian larity, early stage plan. In that paper he tried to remove a duality between Newtonian gravita which motion directs the of tion, downward, macroscopic objects drives and capillary the molecules of the submicro action, which In its way of the liquid upward. scopic world for the commonality between the macrocosm tion and the microcosm of molecular this was Here also was a search gravita a case of observable
motions.
he thought, could be brought where, opposite apparently phenomena a common Einstein vision. Even later dismissed the into though physics he had used in that first paper as juvenilia, he never turned his back on the inherent goal. in his address of appears expression eloquent in Max honor of Planck.81 of Research," 1918, given "Principles states There of a coherent that into the shaping he solemnly or scientist, each in worldview every serious artist, philosopher, Perhaps his own way, "places Einstein called that task" of the the center search of his of gravity a for worldpicture "to arrive can at the cosmos scientists all around noted that of central idealism, of emotional "the those life." supreme universal up. ..." its most
elementary
physicist?the laws from which German
task
be built time?even not
The
typical them.
intensity of the impulse toward a unified Weltbild,

the while rising has Cassidy them?was confined
so
to
for many was specialization David
the "unifying spirit," as it was called, pervaded much at the turn of the century. German European thought
of Modern
Science
35
and historicism, neo-Romanticism, stretching from Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Hegel to Benedetto Croce and Wilhelm Dilthey, to some sort of transcendent each pointed higher unity, the exist ence of permanent the ideas or forces that supersede or underlie of natural phenomena, ap practical ephemeral world existence. The of human the and scholar, daily struggle plications, all strove to grasp the artist, the poet, the theoretical physicist and that higher reality, a reality that because of its permanence must reveal ultimate "truth" and, hence, serve as a transcendence transient, for reacting basis for comprehending, unifying in its many manifestations.82 world of existence I can only ment, Anne of-the-century were add to, the broader
as different as turn in closing that movements move Science" and later the of Monism, "Unity as to this set of aims and ideas. And related closely has shown in her recent book, the "'holistic' later Germany nineteenth-century our of poet. As she put it, "Goethe's vision of living nature would sub of the later generations' to be 'meant' recurrent a holistic
Harrington
biological flourished resulting sequently answers scientist At this
in early impulse" with the assistance aesthetic-teleological as one function to
it of what the question in the grand German style."83 end of Einstein's
some united"
philosophers science
unities.84 arching culture-carriers overreaching, written off son and rather wrote will Yet have
scientists excellent and many century, are ready to settle for a hierarchical or "dis in the pursuit than participate of over rather To them, the self-imposed task of those earlier of grand discussing unifications even appears perhaps it as a historic fact may be Ernst Mayr and E. O. Wil diversity he right when the course of all history and fragmen multiplicity was Einstein's from had not program has evolutionary should biologists be
in search
and
as nostalgia. long insisted the
Moreover, that for modern guiding
naturalists than that be away the
chief
unity. Henry Perhaps after the nineteenth century from unity, and toward
concept Adams
tation.85
fundamental
motivation
of
helped to keep alive the modern

theory through that will nuclear
idea of a search for a physical

gravitation explored).
all phenomena, encompass science (a path that Einstein
36
The
Gerald Holton
ascent to that Mt. Everest is now
various forms taking routes. The physics different among camps, jour along different are witnesses; nals and even the daily papers and the Interna a physics at tional School of Physics has announced seminar in "A Lake Como with the title, Probe of Nature's Grand part, I have
little doubt that hovering there above the audi be a throng of kindred Kant, Max ghosts, including and and of the poets, course, well, Einstein, among Boltzmann, to him; and, way next with Faust himself in back, the Goethe, in Greek of Tha?es Miletus who Ionia, twenty-six philosopher Design." ence will hundred that all years things ago had are made launched of one that essence. Ionian All dream, of those the thema forebears
had tilled and seeded the cultural soil of their time and, in turn, in their different ways, had been nourished and reinforced by it.
ASHES INTO THE WINDS
When
death approached to claim Einstein inApril of 1955, his last

still fully in character. He remained He adhering Bertrand international against the arms he had race. to his ways. Russell and community to the strong-willed had recently signed a to others, intending bring of scientists ambitions Einstein as a unifying then ram had known
acts were
end, obstinately manifesto with together pant that the
counterweight
any have averted might state of mind to his done my thing
during a growing time, but
the divisive, national For seven years, of his
intestinal
at aneurysm rupture it refused when still any major operation the threat. He his uncomplaining explained "I have Margot by saying simply, stepdaughter At about one o'clock once more, his no last spoke as the in the morning, but the night nurse also a No bore few all the
aorta might
here."
aneurysm burst, he suddenly German. did not understand Einstein's convention. members no flowers, ashes were and requests There friends not even was
concerning to be
rest
marks of his lifelong struggle for simplicity and against ordinary

gathering music. funeral?only at the crematorium. But friend family speeches, as Einstein's and ending fellow with
?migr? these lines:
into dispersed to recite felt moved
gravestone. an old the winds, a few verses
No
of poetry,

He gleams Combining, like some departing meteor bright, with his own, eternal light. had
Science
37
As
earlier,
it happened, the poem the by grief-stricken
Goethe
a century been written and a half on the occasion of the death
of his friend Friedrich Schiller. A great circle had closed. Sym bolically, Einstein's lifelong comrades had helped him, once
more, time, to move and cultures. across those illusory divisions between space,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In addition to thanking Robert and Maurine

History whom Frederick of whom of Science I have department, on consulted I also aspects wish of this Robert
Rothschild
to acknowledge work,
for their support to the
Roald Gregory, are responsible
Hoffmann, for possible
several colleagues Gordon including Craig, S. S. Schweber?none Schulmann, above all, Gerhard Sonnert,
errors?and
who provided essential and dedicated help throughout. I am grateful to the An drew W. Mellon Foundation for support of a research project of which this essay
is part.
ENDNOTES *It is symbolic

there were physics?Newton, 2Albert Einstein,
that among the framed portraits he kept in his Princeton home

only three Faraday, each of whom scientists, and Maxwell. Notes," pursued a great synthesis in
"Autobiographical
in Albert
Einstein:
Scientist, ed. Paul Arthur Schilpp phers, 1949), 53.

3Looking how his into Steven in the certain and our opposite direction, publications though warned?such religion,
Philosopher
(Evanston, 111.: Library of Living Philoso

e.g., how were cultural elements later were af
fected by relativity theory rather than initially helping

of Einstein's time, misguided recently ethics, most
to shape it,we know
Weinberg anthropology,
to affect the culture of interpreted of these have been?as attempts as the transfer of relatively concepts and to the so-called relativism literature,
haunting other fields. Einstein himself was perturbed by popular misunder standing of his theory. He would have preferred if his theory?which Max Planck and Max Abraham, not Einstein himself, had named in 1906 the
"theory of relativity"?had become known as the
stead. Einstein, letter to E. Zschimmer, 30 September 1921; cf. Gerald Holton, Einstein, History, and Other Passions: The Rebellion Against Science at the End of the Twentieth Century (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley,
"theory
of
invariance"
in
38
1996),
Gerald Holton
131-132. See also Steven Weinberg, "Sokal's Hoax," New York Re
view of Books,
4Robert K. Merton,
8 August
Science,
1996, 11-15.
Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century
England
5Paul Forman,
(New York: H. Fertig, 1970; first published

"Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum
1938), 238.
Theory, 1918-1927:
to a Hostile Intellectual Adaption by German Physicists and Mathematicians in 3 (1971): 1-115. Historical Studies the Sciences Environment," Physical
6John Hendry, "Weimar Culture and Quantum Causality," History of Science
18 (1980): 155-180; Stephen G. Brush, "The Chimerical Cat: Philosophy of inHistorical Perspective," Social Studies of Science 10 Quantum Mechanics (1980), 393-447; P. Kraft and P. Kroes, "Adaption of Scientific Knowledge
to an Intellectual Environment: Paul Forman's 'Weimar Culture, Causality,
and Quantum
Theory,
1918-1927,'"
Centaurus 27 (1984), 76-99.
7Max Jammer, The Conceptual Development (New of Quantum Mechanics York: McGraw-Hill, 1966); Gerald Holton, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973, 1988). specifically: Philipp Frank, Einstein: Sein Leben und seine Zeit (Munich: Paul List, 1949), published in English as Einstein: His Life and Times, tr. George Rosen, ed. Shuichi Kusaka (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947); Anton Reiser (pseud, of Rudolf Kayser), Albert Einstein: A Biographical Portrait (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1930); and Carl Seelig, Albert Einstein: Eine Dokumentarische Biographie (Zurich: Europa Verlag, 1954). One must in
clude Schilpp, 9New York as well Albert Times as Einstein's Einstein: Sunday own fascinating intellectual autobiography, in Philosopher-Scientist. Magazine, 15 December 1996.
"The Ether Problem, the Mechanistic World View, and the 10TetsuHiroshige, Origin of the Theory of Relativity," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 7 (1976): 3-82.
11 Gerald Holton, Einstein, History, and Other Passions, 174-175.
12Gerald Holton,
Introduction to Concepts and Theories in Physical Science Mass.: 1952), 506; Robert A. Millikan, Addison-Wesley, (Cambridge, "Albert Einstein on His Seventieth Birthday," Reviews of Modern Physics 21 (1949), 343-344. of Scientific Thought,
"Conversations with
13Holton, Thematic Origins

14Cited in Robert S. Shankland,
ch. 8 and 477-480.

Albert Einstein," American
Journal of Physics 31 (1963):47-57. 15Seelig, Albert Einstein: Eine Dokumentarische 16Banesh Hoffmann, with Helen Dukas, (New York: Viking, 1972).
17Lewis S. Feuer, Einstein and
Biographie,
61-62. Creator and Rebel

York: Basic
Albert Einstein:
Science
the Generations
of
(New
Books,
1974). 16 November 1919, 8.
'New York Times,

19At the 1832 meeting
Vienna, und for ferne / instance, Im
Science
der
39
in
of the Association
a hymn proclaimed, thront wie
of German Scientists and Physicians

"La?t dort im uns vereint Isis Tempel See H.
bauen / Der G?ttin, welcher

Sandkorn
keine andre gleich / Die r?tselhaft so nahe uns

Flammensterne."
Schipperges, Naturforscher-Versammlungen
Gerstenberg, 1976).
Weltbild
und
Wissenschaft: 1822 bis
Er?ffnungsreden 1972 (Hildesheim: and Mich?le
zu den H. A. Besso,
20Einstein to Besso,
Correspondance,
13 May
1903-1955,
1917; from Albert Einstein

tr. and intro. Pierre Speziali
(Paris: Hermann,
1972), 114. 21Albert Einstein, Hedwig Born, and Max Born, Briefwechsel, (Munich: Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, 1969), 215.
22Robert K. Merton, Science, Technology, and Society in Seventeenth
1916-1955
Century
England,
23For a classic
238.
exposition vol. of the contrast between Kultur and Zivilisation, see N.
Elias, ?ber
Falken,
den Prozess
1,1-42.
der Zivilisation,
2 vols. 1990.
(Basel: Verlag Haus
zum
1939),
24See, for example, Brockhaus Enzyklop?die, 25Bruno Gebhard, Handbuch der Deutschen Union Verlag, 1962), vol. 3, 305.
Geschichte,
8th ed. (Stuttgart:
26Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of (translation of Ideologie und Utopie, 1929; tr. Lewis Wirth and Knowledge Edward Shils) (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970), 156. By 1843 Karl Marx had noted (in his Kritik des Hegeischen Staatsrechts) that "Geld in the und Bildung" were the main criteria for social differentiation
b?rgerliche vol. gory, society; For Schelling, Marx, a useful and Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Werke, ed. Institut
f?r Marxismus-Leninismus
1, 203-333. "Kant,
beim ZK der SED (Berlin: Dietz Verlag,

of the Bildungsb?rgertum, summary the Administration of Science
1957),
see F. Gre in the Romantic
Era," Osiris
27In the original pire and were and social German bridge, 28Christa
(second series) 5 (1989):17-35.

sense of the The the educated concerned state Mandarinate that served the Chinese Em administering Fritz K. authorities. Academic Press, Treder, to the German Copenhagen, Chicago, with or furthering the political The Decline Ringer, of the 1890-1933 (Cam Community,
chiefly needs of Harvard
Mandarins: Mass.: Kirsten
German University
1969). eds., Albert Einstein in Berlin, 1913
and Hans-J?rgen reports Oslo, de
1933, 2 vols.
collection mats in The
(Berlin: Akademie-Verlag,
1979), vol. 1, 207. This document

Paris, New from German office foreign diplo Buenos Aires, Madrid, Tokyo, See vol. and Vienna. York, 1,
contains Hague, Rio
Montevideo,
Janeiro,
225-240. 29K. Mannheim, Ideologie und Utopie (Frankfurt: Verlag G. Schulte-Bulmke, 1969: first published in 1929), 221-222.
40
Albert
Gerald Holton
Einstein's family tree, see Aron T?nzer, "Der Stammbaum Prof.
30For Albert
Einsteins," J?dische Familien-Forschung: Mitteilungen 7 (1931): 419-421. Gesellschaft f?r j?dische Familienforschung
"Psychoanalytic Reflections Princeton on Einstein's Centenary," Press, f?r sein 1982),
der
31Erik Erikson,
in Gerald
Holton
Perspectives
and Yehuda
(Princeton,
Elkana,
N.J.: "Albert
eds., Albert Einstein: Historical

University Einstein?Beitrag
and Cultural
151-173. Col
32Maja Winteler-Einstein, Press, 33Einstein, 1987), vol.
Lebensbild,"
lected Papers: The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein

1, xlviii-lxvi. Notes," 3-5. "Autobiographical
(Princeton University
34Nevertheless, Helen Dukas

was "anything have but
insisted that Einstein's

as noted not
lifestyle in Zurich and Bern

The Young or Einstein:
'bohemian,'" Einstein
in L. Pyenson, as a rebel but
The Advent
would
of Relativity
characterized
(Bristol: Adam Hilger,
1985), 77, note 9. Pyenson

a stranger marginal
man
(60-61). Biographie,
supervised
35Seelig, Albert Einstein: Eine Dokumentarische

student's while 36Giuseppe Institut: name a professor was Hans at Zurich Tanner; University. Einstein
125. The graduate

dissertation
Tanner's
and Hubert Castagnetti Albert Einstein, Organizer
Goenner, "Directing of Science?" paper
a Kaiser-Wilhelm given at the Boston
University
37Cited in Otto
Colloquium
Nathan
for Philosophy
and Heinz Norden,
of Science, 3March
eds., Einstein
1997.
(New York:
on Peace
Schocken,
38Letter The to Hans Quotable
1968; reprint of 1960 edition),

Muehsam, Einstein, 1996), Insel-Verlag, Castagnetti, 158. 30 March ed. Alice See 1954, Calaprice also Einstein's
157.
Einstein Archive N.J.: of in cited 38-434; Princeton Uni his religiosity in and During
versity
Press,
(Princeton, declaration and Pacifist
Harry Graf Kessler,

(Frankfurt: Giuseppe
Tageb?cher
1918-1937,
ed. Wolfgang
in Hubert and
Pfeiffer-Belli
Goenner
1961), 521-522, as Einstein "Albert
Democrat
World War I," Science in Context 9 (1996): 348-349. (New York: Dell, 1954). Einstein, Ideas and Opinions
39Ministerium der geistlichen, Unterrichtsund
See also Albert
Medizinalangelegenheiten,
"Lehrpl?ne und Lehraufgaben und Ausf?hrungsbestimmungen"
f?r die h?heren Schulen, nebst Erl?uterungen (Berlin:Wilhelm Hertz, 1892), 20.
40Reiser, Albert Einstein: A Biographical Portrait, 26. Toward the end of his life, when Einstein's sister Maja visited him in Princeton (as Einstein wrote to Besso), both would spend their time together reading "Herodotus, Aristotle, Russell's History of Philosophy, and many other interesting books." Einstein
and Heine with 41See Besso, was Correspondance-, often and excluded see also the ideas. Solovine to Albert Einstein, Letters to Albrecht F?lsing, cultural Albert Einstein: Eine out
Biographie
(Frankfurt: Suhrkamp,
from
1993),
"official"
819. One might

canon,
add here that

especially
side Jewish circles, because of his religious background

French the revolutionary by Maurice introduction
and his affiliation
Solovine
(New York: Philosophical
Library,
1987),
8-9. Auguste
Comte
is

notably relatively century. absent unknown German from Einstein's reading in the German-speaking translations of his works list or
Science
41
Comte remained exchanges. at the turn of the parts of Europe were see the chro to appear; slow
nology inAuguste Comte, Rede ?ber den Geist des Positivismus, tr. and intro. I. Fetscher (Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1994; originally published in In 1914, none other than Wilhelm Ostwald translated 1844), xliii-xliv.
Comte's Prospectus des travaux scientifiques n?cessaires pour
soci?t?, almost a century after itwas first published
r?organiser
la
in 1822.
42Max Talmey, The Relativity Theory Simplified, and the Formative Period of its Inventor (New York: Falcon Press, 1932), 164.
Einstein: 43Seelig, Albert Professor Stadler's Eine lecture Dokumentarische course on "Die Biographie, Philosophie 1987Einstein," ), vol. 17. The I. Kants"; 1, 364. Deutsche Literatur course was see Col
lected Papers:
Princeton, 44Albert N.J.: Einstein,
The Collected
Princeton "Eisbachs Buch:
Papers
Kant
of Albert
und
Einstein
(multiple
vols.;
University
Press,
zeitung 1 (ni.), 1685-1692.

45Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, tr. Norman Kemp Smith (London:
Macmillan, operative
1929), 113. "Remarks Concerning the Essays Brought Together in this Co 674. Volume," in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist,
46Albert Einstein,
47This data base for all books remaining after his death was compiled by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and is scheduled to be published. A read ing list of additional books may be found in Abraham Pais, 'Subtle is the Lord . ./: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein (Oxford: Oxford Uni versity Press, 1982). 48MaxWeber, Wissenschaft als Beruf(Berlin: Duncker & Humboldt, 1967), 37; cf. Isaiah Berlin, The Crooked Timber of Humanity, ed. Henry Hardy (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), 213-216.
49As Fritz Einstein: Stern "A shrewdly genius observed could the of also first himself be in a passage seen as both mentioning a public nuisance. Goethe ..." and Stern,
Dreams
Knopf, many." on how
and Delusions:
See also 1987). On the uses and Einstein's view
The Drama
abuses
of German History
of
(New York: Alfred A.
chapter of Goethe
Haber), see Stern, The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961). 50Seelig, Albert Einstein: Eine Dokumentarische
51The letter was printed in Holton, The
on this work, "Einstein's Ger as well as German by ideologues, as a Jew differed from others (e.g., Fritz
Biographie,
of
88-89.
and its Bur
Advancement
Science,
dens: The ]effer son Lecture and Other Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versity Press, 1986), 65; it is also hinted at in a letter toMax Born, cited in Born, "Physics and Relativity," Helvetica Physica Acta, Supplementum IV (1956), 249.
52Collected Papers, vol. 2, 150.
53IssacNewton,
Philosophiae
Mathematical
naturalis
Principles
of Natural
Philosophy
original
(translation of
translation by
principia
mathematica),
2 vols.,
42
Gerald Holton
Andrew Motte (1729), revised translation by Florian Cajori University of California Press, 1962), vol. 2, 398. (Berkeley, Calif.:
54Holton,
The
Advancement
of Science,
and
its Burdens,
15.
55The theme of unity and unification also played an important role in biology, as Vassiliki Smocovitis has documented in her Unifying Biology: The Evolution
ary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer
sity Press, Smocovitis,

using Einstein
commented 1996). William Morton Wheeler (as cited in 109) that itmight take "a few super-Einsteins" to unify biology,
as the icon of the theme of unification.
56Cited inHolton,
57Abraham Pais,
The Advancement
"Subtle is the Lord.
of Science, and its Burdens,

. .", 9.
86.
58PaulineMazumdar, Species and Specificity: An Interpretation of theHistory Immunology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
59Gerald Holton, Science and Anti-Science (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer
of
sity Press, 1993),

60J?rgen Mileva Renn Marie: and The
12-15.
Robert Love Press, Culture Schulmann, Letters, 1992), and in Albert Einstein? "Introduction," ed. Renn and Schulmann (Princeton, N.J.: xi-xxviii. ed. Samuel Lipman (New Haven,
Princeton 61See Matthew
University Arnold,
Anarchy,
Conn.: Yale University
Press, 1994; first published
in 1869).
62Einstein kept sculptured busts of both Goethe and Schiller in his Berlin home. F. Herneck, Einstein privat: Herta W. erinnert sich an die Jahre 1927 bis 1933 (Berlin: Buchverlag Der Morgen, 1978), 47-48.
63In the quite latter common part of the nineteenth "best and book" in the lists to assemble twentieth early of the outstanding century, works it was of lit
erature. In 1911, Heinrich Falkenberg compiled such a bibliography, "Listen it comprised forty der besten B?cher," in the Zeitschrift f?r B?cherfreunde;
six entries. The of Goethe books." earliest 1853; such in Neukirch's a dominant of the bibliography Dichterkanon quent the ones, "ten best Neukirch's Johann as well as in the subse compilation, role. Around the Viennese 1906, responses was in the Jahrbuch was
played A
bookseller Hugo Heller polled a number of intellectuals about their choice of

selection printed
deutscher Bibliophilen und Literatur freunde, ed. H. Feigl (Zurich: Amalthea Verlag, 1931), 108-127. As one might expect, Goethe figured prominently in these replies, both explicitly and implicitly. At that time, the consensus about
the Much canon. classic has This still the The who literary changed time received almost Zeit canon since were was then. so went it almost without that strong Some the German years later, ninety saying. weekly that they
Die Zeit
again asked a group of German

they to nominate only
intellectuals
three but classic resurrect that now to
about
five works
the literary his

la this
thought German
Faust, mented project faded. of
Gymnasiasten
numerous complete was intended started to with study
had to read. Goethe,
and particularly
nominations, erosion of the the to help statement
many respondents canon. Indeed, literary a canon
of Die
report begin
those
German
nowadays at a university do
that had clearly "up to 90 percent not know Faust"?

which to the earlier generations of Bildungsb?rger would
Science
have sounded
43
ut
terly unbelievable. Die Zeit,

^Collected Papers, vol. 1, 26-27.
16May
1997.
65George Henry Lewis, The Life of Goethe,

Co., 1875).
3rd ed. (London: Smith, Elder and (New York: New Direc
to cite a
66Henry C. Hatfield, tions, 1963), 28.

67And of course not
Goethe: A Critical Introduction

in German-speaking D. Richardson,
only
countries; Emerson:
single
example, (Ber
Ralph Waldo
Goethe's works.
Emerson
taught himself German of California
specifically
in order to read
on Fire
See Robert
The Mind
keley, Calif.: University
Press, 1995). 4th ed.
68JohannWolfgang von Goethe, Goethes Werke (Hamburger Ausgabe), (Hamburg: Christian Wegner Verlag, 1962), vol. 13, 7-10. 69Hatfield, Goethe: A Critical Introduction, 70Isaiah Berlin, Concepts and Categories 71 Lewes, The Life of Goethe, 558.
72On this the and other hand, there can be no
114.
(New York: Viking Press, 1979).
doubt,
of
course,
that
many
of
the
Bildungsb?rger
all other
and of those aspiring to their ranks rampantly quoted from

classics merely to demonstrate their membership in the edu
cated elite. Such people were greatly helped by Georg B?chmann's Gefl?gelte Worte: Der Zitatenschatz des deutschen Volkes, 27th ed. (Berlin: Haude ?C
Spenersche Buchhandlung, 1926), a best-selling compilation of classic quota
tions and lengthier excerpts that was first published in 1864, and went through 27 editions by 1926. SeeWolfgang Fr?hwald, "B?chmann und die in der deutschen Folgen: Zur sozialen Funktion des Bildungszitates im 19. Jahrhundert, part II: Bildungsg?ter Literatur," in Bildungsb?rgertum
und Bildungswissen, 197-219. ed. Reinhart Koselleck (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1990),
73WalterMoore,
versity 74Arnold Press,
Schr?dinger: Life and Thought

1989), 47. Electrodynamics (volume
(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni

three of his Lectures on Theo
Sommerfeld,
retical Physics, tr. Edward Ramberg)

75In a September 76Taken from 1900 Stewart letter Atkins's to Marie. prose
(New York: Academic Press, 1952), 311.

Collected Papers, Johann vol. 1, 260. von Goethe:
translation,
Wolfgang
Faust I & II (Cambridge, Mass.: Suhrkamp/Insel lines 430-431, 434-441, 447-448.

77Maxwell's sure no equations in empty space are taken from with
Publishers Boston,
E. M. Dr. Purcell, Faust, who See Roger
1984),
Electricity is under Shattuck,
and Magnetism,
a dark Martin's
2d. ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill,

today transgressions.
1985), 331. I am fairly
text would connect them physics cloud these days for his various
Forbidden Knowledge:
Press, 1996).
From Prometheus
to Pornography
(New York:
St.
44
treatise: nicht
Gerald Holton
"So weiss." his rendering epigraphs, saurem soll ich denn mit For Part II, Boltzmann of Goethe's Schweiss/Euch wrote: "War lines was, for Part ich der I of his selbst diese lehren, was es ein Gott,
78In Boltzmann's
Zeichen schrieb, /Die mit geheimnissvoll verborg'nem Trieb / Die Kr?fte der Natur um mich enth?llen / Und mir das Herz mit stiller Freude f?llen." 79There is no authoritative picture of how Goethe
for stage directions amount of literature Wolfgang von
imagined that heavenly Sign of

it appear in the text of Faust. on that see, e.g., question; Goethe: Die Faustdichtungen
since no the Macrocosmos, a There of course, is, good Ernst Beutler, ed., Johann
(Munich: Winkler Verlag, Goethes Faust: Erster Teil

Verlag, Geisteswissenschaftliche vol. 1955), 1, 25-27
1977), 754-757; Heinrich O. Proskauer, ed., (Basel: Zbinden Verlag), 1982; Rudolf Steiner,
Faust zu Goethes Novalis Erl?uterungen (Freiburg: in Goethes and Die R?tsel "Faust": und exoterisch
esoterisch
Trunz's But we missioned torically two
(Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf

editions, at least Goethes the Faust that
Steiner Verlag,
Christian satisfied
1981); and Erich

Wegner Goethe Verlag, himself: which the his in
(Hamburg: seems to have an etching "Dr. Faust,"
1949), 496-497,
know
and Goethe?Faust
image
(Munich: C. H. Beck, 1986), 517-518). (which included Faust), he com

by Rembrandt, named after original
the 1790 edition of volume 7 of his writings

as a was frontispiece as known a version representing of
sixteenth-century
legendary figure (as shown in figure 4).
in his Vortr?ge und 80Max Planck, "Die Einheit des physikalischen Weltbildes," Erinnerungen (Darmstadt:Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1970), 28-51.
81Originally the rather entitled "Motiv des title Forschens," "Prinzipien der the address was unfortunate Forschung" translation published in Einstein's of the under Mein address
Weltbild
This
(Frankfurt: Ullstein B?cher 1955, first published

"Principles of Research" in the English
in 1934), 107-110.
led to
in Ideas and Opinions (New York: Dell, 1954), 219-222. While the second quote from this address is here taken directly from the published English
translation, the first is my own translation of the original German text (in
Mein Weltbild). 82David Cassidy, Einstein and Our World Press, 1995), 14.
83Anne Harrington, Reenchanted Science:
(Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities

Holism in German Culture from
Wilhelm
II toHitler
Peter
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

Galison and David and Power J. Stump, (Stanford, eds., Calif.:
Press, 1996), 5,10.

The Disunity of Sci Stanford University
84See, for example, ence: Boundaries,
Contexts,
"Disunified Sciences," in Richard Q. Elvee, Press, 1996) and Ian Hacking, (Nobel Conference XXV; St. ed., The End of Science? Attack and Defense
Peter, Minn.: Gustavus Adolphus College, 1992), 33-52.
85Henry Adams, The Education Houghton Miff lin, 1918).
of Henry Adams: An Autobiography
(Boston:

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Einstein and the Cultural Roots of Modern Science Author(s): Gerald Holton Source: Daedalus, Vol. 127, No.

Einstein and the Cultural Roots ofModern Science

THE ROOTS OF SCIENCE

fruits roots, as the But quite own Hume

are nourished of other

by many scientists. Sig

nificantly, Albert Einstein himself characterized his work

source. that in his

reading David early discover

ies.2 Such Einstein, cultural ideas of

aspect scientists science strict

Erwin Schr?dinger did in 1932: To what extent is the pursuit of

explore how the cultural milieu

inwhich Einstein found himself

Gerald Holton ence Emeritus Rothschild 8, 1997.

scientists: on and the

imagination the Galileo; adherence

philosophy such as Kepler figures that affected Newton's

the work; discoveries

growth But influence

disputed by John Hendry,

Stephen Brush, and more

Einstein and the Cultural Roots of Modern

that deserves attention

case of Einstein specific two reasons. it may First,

connections it will scholars

intriguing the source

for scholars to hide assiduously

this occasion that caused

a specific to sketch aware of

aspects the news

early work. death on April Although 18,

I can fix the moment

Iwas first drawn into this field

our physics department, commemoration of Einstein's

on scholarship had examined

seph Needham, Koyr?, H?l?ne of their seemed

Otto Neugebauer, Sarton, Jo Robert Merton, Alexander to speak I Mach. Einstein

Even among territory. few serious sources.8

deeply the him last

but chiefly by way

of ancestral piety and for his

in vain his program of finding a unified field

Today, be sure, many whose journalism,

young man, four decades

later, this perception are bursting from bubbles

Einstein the headline

and the Cultural Roots of Modern "Forget the Whale?the

Beat His Wife?"9

a trip to the Institute on which for documents

key to estate, and secretary about of his .

in the household?knowledgeable she was the untiring translator

exhilaration, most historians were knew

all unpublished, Dukas only Miss

arranged her way

documents, library at Hebrew collection were and living the wretched at

lot, now transferred

about 45,000 numbering to the Einstein's will by

are most that

in Jerusalem. in that Represented in Europe and abroad who physicists is

It is an amazingly letters exchanged and of creative interests

(Indeed, I had just recently published a textbook on physics that

Einstein and the Cultural Roots of Modern