Einstein, Albert - Erwin Hiebert (essay date 1984)
Erwin Hiebert (essay date 1984)
SOURCE: "Einstein's Image of Himself as a Philosopher of Science," in Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences: Essays in Honor of I Bernard Cohen, edited by Everett Mendelsohn, Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 175-90.
[In the following essay, Hiebert explores Einstein's position as a philosopher of science—as opposed to merely being a scientist—and his own views of himself as such.]
Since antiquity, natural philosophers and scientists have expressed the conviction that the observational and experimental study of nature brings with it a good measure of intellectual and aesthetic satisfaction. Indeed, scientists on the whole claim to derive considerable personal pleasure from their work. I believe these claims are true. Now it seems plausible to assert that the machinery of human perception and cognition is both biologically structured and socially motivated to accentuate certain...
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