By the way, if you want to know something about Albert Einstein's theory of
relativity, then I can recommend the following book
in German (It also needs to be translated in English :-)) : "Der Herr Albert,
ein roman über Albert Einsteins
Gedankenexperimente" by Frank Vermeulen. It was elected as the book
of the month for the youth in March 2003. You find more information on
the hardcover version from Gerstenberg on the Amazon site here.
A paperback version is available from Piper on the Amazon site here.
Hier
vind je iets dat je misschien kan helpen bij het invullen van je megabike
2007 voor de Tour van 2007. Of misschien ook niet.
Gebruiken
op eigen risico ;-))
The
teaching of Relativity
"Relativity
teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and
the same reality".
The
formulation of Relativity
"I
sometimes ask myself how it came about that I was the one to develop the
theory of relativity.
The
reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think about
problems of space and time.
These
are things which he has thought about as a child.
But
my intellectual development was retarded, as a result of which I began to
wonder about space and time only when I had already grown up".
On the
Moon being there without Looking at It ...
"I
think that a particle must have a separate reality independent of the
measurements.
That
is an electron has spin, location and so forth even when it is not being
measured.
I
like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.".
Intelligence
and the ultimate & fundamental ends
"Intelligence
makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends.
But
mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends.
To
make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set them fast in
the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most
important function which religion has to form in the social life of
man".
The
goals of science & religion, and our understanding of life
"The
more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer
becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this
ordered regularity for causes of a different nature.
For
him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exist as an
independent cause of natural events.
To
be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with the natural
events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this
doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific
knowledge has not yet been able to set foot.
But
I am persuaded that such behavior on the part of the representatives of
religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal.
For
a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light but only in
the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable
harm to human progress ....
If
it is one of the goals of religions to liberate mankind as far as possible
from the bondage of egocentric cravings, desires, and fears, scientific
reasoning can aid religion in another sense.
Although
it is true that it is the goal of science to discover (the) rules which
permit the association and foretelling of facts, this is not its only aim.
It
also seeks to reduce the connections discovered to the smallest possible
number of mutually independent conceptual elements.
It
is in this striving after the rational unification of the manifold that it
encounters its greatest successes, even though it is precisely this
attempt which causes it to run the greatest risk of falling a prey to
illusion.
The
Priory (Priorij) of Sion (Zion): seek and you will find. Close your eyes
and you will be blind.
But
whoever has undergone the intense experience of successful advances made
in this domain, is moved by the profound reverence for the rationality
made manifest in existence.
By
way of the understanding he achieves a far reaching emancipation from the
shackles of personal hopes and desires, and thereby attains that humble
attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason, incarnate in existence,
and which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man.
This
attitude, however, appears to me to be religious in the highest sense of
the word.
And
so it seems to me that science not only purifies the religious impulse of
the dross of its anthropomorphism but also contributes to a religious
spiritualization of our understanding of life".
The
mystic emotion, knowledge, and religious sentiment
"The
finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion.
Herein
lies the germ of all art and all true science.
Anyone
to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and
lives in a state of fear is a dead man.
To
know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself
as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone
are intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ...
that is the core of the true religious sentiment.
In
this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly
religious men."
The
Temple of Science, and the Scientific Assembly ...
"In
the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that
dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither.
Many
take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power;
science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience
and the satisfaction of ambition;
many
others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of
their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes.
Were
an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the people belonging to these
two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously
depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past
times, left inside"
The
cosmic religious experience
"The
cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force
behind scientific research.
No
one who does not appreciate the terrific exertions and above all, the
devotion without which pioneer creations in scientific thought cannot come
into being, can judge the strength of the feeling out of which alone such
work, turned away as it is from immediate practical life, can grow.
What
a deep faith in the rationality of the world and its structure and what a
longing to understand even the smallest glimpses of the reason revealed in
the world there must have been in Kepler and Newton ..."
Human
beings and their circle of compassion
"A
human being is part of the whole called by us universe , a part limited in
time and space.
We
experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from
the rest.
A
kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
This
delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal
desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our
task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its
beauty...
We
shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to
survive."
The
student, success, service, and the task of educators
"One
should guard against inculcating a young man {or woman} with the idea that
success is the aim of life, for a successful man normally receives from
his peers an incomparably greater portion than than the services he has
been able to render them deserve.
The
value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of
receiving.
The
most important motive for study at school, at the university, and in life
is the pleasure of working and thereby obtaining results which will serve
the community.
The
most important task for our educators is to awaken and encourage these
psychological forces in a young man {or woman}.
Such a basis alone can lead to the joy of possessing one of the most
precious assets in the world - knowledge or artistic skill."
Imagination
and Knowledge ...
"I
am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Imagination
is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination
encircles the world."
The
Tree of Life ...
"All
religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.
All
these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it
from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual
towards freedom."
Two
Goals of Freedom ....
"(1)
Those instrumental goods which should serve to maintain the life and
health of all human beings should be produced by the least possible labor
of all.
(2)
The satisfaction of physical needs is indeed the indispensable
precondition of a satisfactory existence, but in itself is not enough.
In
order to be content men must also have the possibility of developing their
intellectual and artistic powers to whatever extent accord with their
personal characteristics and abilities."
Spiritual
Development of Individuals ....
"If
the possibility of the spiritual development of all individuals is to be
secured, a second kind of outward freedom is necessary.
The
development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit in
general requires still another kind of freedom, which may be characterized
as inward freedom.
It
is this freedom of the spirit which consists in the interdependence of
thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as
well as from un-philosophical routinizing and habit in general.
This
inward freedom is an infrequent gift of nature and a worthy object for the
individual."
Morals
and Emotions ....
"We
all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves, that our
conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears.
Intuition
tells us that that is true also of our fellows and of the higher animals.
We
all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant.
We
are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and
that of the race.
Hunger,
love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the
individual's instinct for self preservation.
At
the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our
fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power,
pity, and so on.
All
these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of
man's actions.
All
such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease
stirring within us.
Though
our conduct seems so very different from that of the higher animals, the
primary instincts are much alike in them and in us.
The
most evident difference springs from the important part which is played in
man by a relatively strong power of imagination and by the capacity to
think, aided as it is by language and other symbolical devices.
Thought
is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary
instincts and the resulting actions.
In
that way imagination and intelligence enter into our existence in the part
of servants of the primary instincts.
But
their intervention makes our acts to serve ever less merely the immediate
claims of our instincts."
The
Difficulty of the Sages ...
"The
real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all times,
is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the motional
life of man, that its influence should withstand the pressure of the
elemental psychic forces in the individual?"
Belief
and Knowledge (Newton - 1900's) ...
"
During the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held
that there was an un-reconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief.
The
opinion prevailed among advanced minds that it was time that belief
should be replaced increasingly by knowledge; belief that did not itself
rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed.
According
to this conception, the sole function of education was to open the way to
thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the
people's education, must serve that end exclusively."
The
Nature and Authority of Fundamental Ends ...
"Knowledge
of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.
If
one asks the whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since they
cannot be stated and justified merely by reason, one can only answer: they
exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions, which act upon the
conduct and aspirations and judgments of the individuals; they are there,
that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find
justification for their existence.
They
come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through
the medium of powerful personalities.
One
must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature simply
and clearly."
The
Christian Religion and the Human Goal ...
"The
highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in
the Jewish-Christian religious tradition.
It
is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we can reach only very
inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and
valuations.
If
one were to take that goal out of out of its religious form and look
merely at its purely human side, one might state it perhaps thus: free and
responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers
freely and gladly in the service of all mankind.
...
it is only to the individual that a soul is given.
And
the high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule, or to
impose himself in any other way."
Definition
of Science ...
"Science
is the century-old endeavor to bring together by means of systematic
thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into as thorough-going an
association as possible.
To
put it boldly, it is the attempt at a posterior reconstruction of
existence by the process of conceptualization.
Science
can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and
outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary."
Weather
Prediction ...
"When
the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is
too large scientific method in most cases fails.
One
need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a
few days ahead is impossible.
Nevertheless,
no one doubts that we are confronted with a causal connection whose causal
components are in the main known to us.
Occurrences
in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the
variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in
nature."
Living
Things ...
"We
have penetrated far less deeply into the regularities obtaining within the
realm of living things, but deeply enough nevertheless to sense at least
the rule of fixed necessity ..... what is still lacking here is a grasp of
the connections of profound generality, but not a knowledge of order
itself.
The
first step in the setting of a 'real external world' ...
"I
believe that the first step in the setting of a 'real external world' is
the formation of the concept of bodily objects and of bodily objects of
various kinds.
Out
of the multitude of our sense experiences we take, mentally and
arbitrarily, certain repeatedly occurring complexes of sense impression (partly
in conjunction with sense impressions which are interpreted as signs for
sense experiences of others), and we attribute to them a meaning the
meaning of the bodily object.
Considered
logically this concept is not identical with the totality of sense
impressions referred to; but it is an arbitrary creation of the human (or
animal) mind.
On
the other hand, the concept owes its meaning and its justification
exclusively to the totality of the sense impressions which we associate
with it."
Experience:
Personal and Cosmic ...
Man
tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified
and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to
substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to
overcome it.
This
is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the
natural scientists do, each in his own fashion.
Each
makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in
order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find in the
narrow whirlpool of personal experience.
A
collection of One Liners ....
"Great
spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds"
"I
do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4
will be fought with sticks and stones."
"Science
without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
"God
does not play dice with the universe."
"Common
sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18."
"Nothing
will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on
Earth
as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet"
"Only
two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not
sure about the former."
"Problems
cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them."
"Few
are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
"Peace
cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through
understanding."
"When
the solution is simple, God is answering."
"Where
the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where
we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter
the realm of Art and Science"
"Watch
the stars, and from them learn.
To the Master's honor all must turn, each in its track, without a sound,
forever tracing Newton's ground."
"Things
should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler."
"Put
your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.
Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.
THAT's relativity."
"Gravitation
can not be held responsible for people falling in love"
