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THE SUDDENLY FAMOUS DOCTOR EINSTEIN' 319

Even though Einstein's interest in and impact on philosophy were strong, he

himself never wrote articles that may be called philosophical in a technical sense.

After 1920 he wrote occasional reviews of or introductions for philosophical

works, however. His reviews of books on epistemology by Weinberg [E70] and

Winternitz [E71] show his familiarity with Kant. So does the record of his dis-

cussions with French philosophers in 1922. When one of these referred to a pos-

sible connection between Einstein's ideas and those of Kant, Einstein replied:

In regard to Kant's philosophy, I believe that every philosopher has his own
Kant.... Arbitrary concepts are necessary in order to construct science; as to
whether these concepts are given a priori or are arbitrary conventions, I can
say nothing. [E72]
From Einstein's introduction to a new translation of Galileo's Dialogue [E73], we
see that he had read Plato. He wrote an introduction to a new German translation
of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura [E74]. He was familiar with Bertrand Russell's
theory of knowledge [E75]. His philosophical interests are also manifest in his
review of Emile Meyerson's La Deduction Relativiste [E76] and his introductions
to books by Planck [E77] and Frank [E78]. Among the oriental philosophers, he
appreciated Confucius. Once, in Princeton, he fell asleep during a lecture on Zen
Buddhism. Perhaps he was tired that evening.
Einstein continued to consider philosophy ennobling in his later years. In 1944
he wrote to Benedetto Croce, 'I would not think that philosophy and reason itself
will be man's guide in the foreseeable future; however, they will remain the most
beautiful sanctuary they have always been for the select' [E79].
Among the many contributions that show Einstein as a man of culture, I select
two for brief additional comments.
The first is his appreciation of Maxwell [E58], one of his precursors. In Ein-
stein's opinion, Maxwe'i was a revolutionary figure. The purely mechanical
world picture was upset by 'the great revolution forever linked with the names
Faraday, Maxwell, and Hertz. The lion's share in this revolution was Max-
well's.... Since Maxwell's time, physical reality has been thought of as repre-
sented by continuous fields.... This change in the conception of reality is the most
profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of New-
ton.' Elsewhere Einstein wrote of Maxwell, 'Imagine his feelings when the dif-
ferential equations he had formulated proved to him that electromagnetic fields
spread in the form of polarized waves and with the speed of light!' [E80].
The second comment deals with the views on religion [E81]. 'A religious person
is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those superper-
sonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational founda-
tion.' Thus, according to Einstein, 'a legitimate conflict between science and reli-
gion cannot exist.. .. Science without religion is lame, religion without science is
blind.' By his own definition, Einstein himself was, of course, a deeply religious
man.

2. The Man of Science. With the formulation of the field equations of grav-