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APRIL 1950
AMERICAN VOL. 182, NO. 4
On the Generalized
Theory of Gravitation
An account of the newly published extension
of the general theory of relativity against
its historical and philosophical background
by Albert Einstein
HE editors of SCI tive of no less importance. This is the to the conclusion that in these transi
ENTIFIC AMERI striving toward unification and simpli tions the "essence" of the thing has not
CAN have asked fication of the premises of the theory as changed at all. Maybe the thing consists
me to write about a whole (i.e., Mach's principle of econo of immutable particles and the change
my recent work my, interpreted as a logical principle). is only a change in their spatial arrange
which has just There exists a passion for comprehen ment. Could it not be that the same is
been published. It sion, just as there exists a passion for true of all material objects which emerge
is a mathematical music. That passion is rather common in again and again with nearly identical
investigation con children, but gets lost in most people qualities?
cerning the foundations of field physics. later on. Without this passion, there This idea is not entirely lost during the
Some readers may be puzzled: Didn't would be neither mathematics nor natu long hibernation of occidental thought.
we learn all about the foundations of ral science. Time and again the passion Two thousand years after Leucippus,
physics when we were still at school? for understanding has led to the illusion Bernoulli wonders why gas exerts pres
The answer is "yes" or "no," depending that man is able to comprehend the ob sure on the walls of a container. Should
on the interpretation. We have become jective world rationally, by pure thought, this be "explained" by mutual repulsion
acquainted with concepts and general without any empirical founc4ttions-in of the parts of the gas, in the sense of
relations that enable us to comprehend short, by metaphysics. I believe that Newtonian mechanics? This hypothesis
an immense range of experiences and every true theorist is a kind of tamed appears absurd, for the gas pressure de
make them accessible to mathematical metaphysicist, no matter how pure a pends on the temperature, all other
treatment. In a certain sense these con "positivist" he may fancy himself. The things being equal. To assume that the
cepts and relations are probably even metaphysicist believes that the logically Newtonian forces ofi nteraction depend
final. This is true, for example, of the simple is also the real. The tamed meta on temperature is contrary to the spirit
laws of light refraction, of the relations physicist believes that not all that is logi of Newtonian mechanics. Since Bernoul
of classical thermodynamics as far as cally simple is embodied in experienced li is aware of the concept of atomism, he
it is based on the concepts of pressure, reality, but that the totality of all sensory is bound to conclude that the atoms (or
volume, temperature, heat and work, experience can be "comprehended" on molecules) collide with the walls of the
and of the hypothesiS of the non-exist the basis of a conceptual system built on container and in doing so exert pressure.
ence of a perpetual motion machine. premises of great simplicity. The skeptic After all, one has to assume that atoms
What, then, impels us to devise theory will say that this is a "miracle creed." are in motion; how else can one account
after theory? Why do we devise theories Admittedly so, but it is a miracle creed for the varying temperature of gases?
at all? The answer to the latter question which has been borne out to an amazing A simple mechanical consideration
is simply: Because we enjoy "compre extent by the development of science. shows that this pressure depends only on
hending, " i.e., reducing phenomena by The rise of atomism is a good example. the kinetic energy of the particles and
the process of logic to something ah'eady How may Leucippus have conceived on their density in space. This should
known or (apparently) evident. New this bold idea? When water freezes and have led the physicists of that age to the
theories are first of all necessary when becomes ice-apparently something en conclusion that heat consists in random
we encounter new facts which cannot be tirely different from water-why is it that motion of the atoms. Had they taken this
"explained" by existing theories. But this the thawing of the ice forms something consideration as seriously as it deserved
motivation for setting up new theories is, which seems indistinguishable from the to be taken, the development of the theo
so to speak, trivial, imposed from with original water? Leucippus is puzzled and ry of heat-in particular the discovery of
out. There is another, more subtle mo- looks for an "explanation." He is driven the equivalence of heat and mechanical
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