Great Course: Albert Einstein

I have just finished the Great Course called "Albert Einstein: Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian" taught by Professor Don Howard from the University of Notre Dame.  It was a great course for me to take (pardon the pun) for several reasons.

First, as I mentioned on this blog a couple of months ago, I have been mulling over the intersection of philosophy and science as work through my own understanding of the power of science and its place in the creation of knowledge.  In my mind, I can only appreciate science fully when I understand its roots, its strengths and limitations, its relationship to truth and knowledge.  Well, as it turns out, my whole attempt to understand science in this way is a part of what's known as Philosophy of Science, and while Albert Einstein was definitely a scientist, he was also a philosopher of science.  The Great Course, being biographical, did not merely focus on Einstein's work as a scientist, but also on how he approached science -- which turns out to have been influenced greatly by philosophy.  He, himself, thought and wrote frequently on the topic of the philosophy of science, and was a proponent of requiring physicists to study philosophy.

The second reason this was a good course to take right now is that it was not as heavy as several of my more recent courses.  Yes, it described Einstein's theories, but not in as much depth as did Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition.  And yes, it covered some philosophy of science, but only insofar as it related directly to Einstein, not as deeply as is necessary in Philosophy of Science.    Being biographical, this course had periods of historical description -- both of Einstein's life and of the world in which he lived -- which are easier to absorb.  It was, in some sense, a "break."   Like the flat part of a long run, it was still work, but not nearly the work represented by "hills" of other courses.

A third reason is quite personal - in the sense that it relates to me as a person.  When I was in grade school, I remember reading a lot, but there are only a few things I remember reading specifically.  I got into "The Boxcar Children" and "The Hardy Boys" and I still appreciate the fourth-grade substitute teacher who introduced me to Tolkein's "The Hobbit."  But, thinking back to those days, I realize that while my penchant for fiction was clearly established, I had one non-fiction fascination -- biographies of Albert Einstein.  I read two or three which were stocked in my grade school library, and I remember getting help from the librarian to borrow some more from other libraries, through school.  It's funny -- I can't say I remember many facts which I read back then, but I certainly remember reading the books.  I can even picture what one of the covers looked like.  In any case, this Great Course was like going back to childhood again, in one sense, as I re-learned about one of the heroes of science.

Of course, in a blog, I can't relate even a meaningful fraction of what I learned in 24 lectures.  Let me give you a few tidbits:

• Contrary to popular myth, Albert Einstein was not bad at math.  This myth arose from sloppy work by  early biographers.  Einstein spent a year in Aarau which had a grading system which was the opposite of what we might expect.  A cursory look at his grades made it appear he did poorly, but in fact, his grades put him near the top of the class.
• Thought experiments - a staple for Galileo centuries earlier - were an early tool for Einstein, and one which he continued to use throughout his life.  Picturing tough problems through simplified scenarios focused his mind, and also allowed him to explain difficult theories in a more accessible way.
• His dislike of nationalism, which put him immediately and consistently against facism, was part of a firm belief that a world government would be better -- even necessary -- for the advancement of humankind.  This belief sounded too much like anti-democracy for some powerful people, causing Einstein to be left out of the Manhattan Project.  We'll never know exactly what his response would have been, had he been invited to join.   Despite strong warnings against the use of nuclear weapons after the war, and despite working for pacifist causes throughout his life, he pointedly agreed that war against Hitler was necessary.

This Great Course is an excellent mix of science, history, biography and philosophy, and it reacquainted me with the life and work of one of the most influential people who ever lived.