🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <TORKEL.92Aug28124840@isis.sics.se> torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen)  
writes:
> In article <1992Aug28.080242.7042@math.ucla.edu> barry@arnold.math.ucla.edu 
> (Barry Merriman) writes:
> 
>    >I assume relativity was an outgrowth of his
>    >understanding of electrodynamics plus a few key physical insights.
>    >(Relativity is essentially contained in Electrodynamics if you 
>    >allow yourself to interpret the theory correctly.)
> 
>    I was mainly referring to GR, which he worked on for a decade.
> I get the impression that you're basing your comments entirely
> on preconceived ideas, in which case I suggest the book by Pais,
> "Subtle is the Lord", as a source of factual information.

I admit to not having studied the life of Einstein in detail. What I 
know about it was tangential information picked up during the 
numerous courses I've taken on SR and GR, and reading Einstein's
little book on understanding relativity, plus a documentary on PBS.

I might add that this is another thing that separates philosophical
study from scientific study. We don't worry about reading the
original works, or dwelling on the lives and miscellaneous writings
of the originators of physical theory. For some reason that I don't
understand, philosphers still devote much time to original 
works from Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, etc, etc, 
rather than merely focusing on the concepts themselves, divorced
from their proponents (and their proponents generally inferior
original presentations).


--
Barry Merriman
UCLA Dept. of Math
UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research
barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet; NeXTMail is welcome)