On the Method of Theoretical Physics
by Albert Einstein.

The Herbert Spencer Lecture by Albert Einstein,
On 10th, June 1933 at Oxford,
Link to the full lecture.

Editor's note:
I have extracted pieces that deal with the philosophy of science and this is my summary adaptation. First, Einstein spoke of Herbert Spencer as a man who had endeavoured to unify human knowledge, and how he, Einstein, also liked to step back from his scientific pursuits to think about science in general. He then compared reason or logic to data or experience, a topic very appropriate to the Anglo-Saxon brains in his audience with an innate (genetic?) preference for the second as opposed to the Greeks and their preference for the first. And he referred to science as part of the world of ideas. Please, see our page What is BrainsNet.Net for more on the reasoning behind this adaptation.

Paraphrased summary:

I want to look briefly at the development of the theoretical world, especially the relation of pure theory to data or experience. These are the two constituents of human knowledge. We honour ancient Greece as the cradle of western science. Greece created, for the first time, the intellectual miracle of a logical system. This wonderful achievement of reason gave humanity the basis for future development. The man who is not enthralled by their work could not become a scientific theorist. Yet their time was not right for scientific truth, as we know it, until after Kepler and Galileo. Pure logic can give us no knowledge about reality without data or experience. Galileo became the father of modern physics and of all natural science because he realised this.

However, if experience is the be-all of scientific knowledge, what role is there left for philosophy in science? The answer is that data and experience must have consequences and these are derived by logical deduction.

We have now given philosophy and data their respective places within theoretical physics. Reason gives structure to the system; data must correspond exactly to the implications in the theory. The ultimate goal of all theory is to reduce basic laws and concepts to as few as possible, and to a point where they cannot be reduced any further, without having to compromise a single piece of data.

Today there is an ever increasing gap between basic laws or concepts on one hand and the implications to be matched to experience on the other. Newton, the creator of theoretical physics, still believed that laws could be deduced from experience. It seemed to him there was no problematic element in the concepts of Space and Time. The laws governing them seemed to be deduced from experience. The great practical success of his theory stopped him from recognising the fictional aspect of the principles of his system. It was the General Theory of Relativity that showed he was wrong in this view.

I believe, therefore, that pure thought, for example in pure mathematics, is able to understand reality or the laws of nature, just as the ancients did. We can arrive at these laws by searching for the simplest mathematical concept - nature is the materialisation of ideal mathematical simplicity.

Editor's request: If there is a German-speaking physicist born British or American who has adapted the entire speech using current English terminology, I would be grateful for the text, and/or a link to your page.

Also welcome would be any concise piece on Einstein's philosophical thinking. Please, see our Terms for submitting material and ideas.

EDITOR