EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). Autograph letter signed ('A.E.') to Michele Besso, [Princeton], 10 August 1954. In German, 2 2/3 pages, 278 x 215mm, the date alone added in typescript. Envelope. Partial transcription by Besso on a separate leaf. Provenance : by descent from Michele Besso. A comprehensive account of the formal logic behind his entire life's work, tracing the path from special relativity to general relativity and the unified field theory. Besso has written with a characterisation of the general theory of relativity, which Einstein considers to have accurately represented its 'genetic aspect'; he proposes to add to this an analysis from the point of view of formal logic. 'For as long as one cannot grasp the empirical content of the theory because of temporarily insurmountable mathematical difficulties, its logical simplicity is the only -- although also naturally insufficient – criterion of the theory's value'. Einstein's analysis begins with special relativity: 'The theory of special relativity is actually nothing other than an adaptation of the idea of the inertial system to the empirically corroborated conviction of the constancy of the speed of light with respect to any inertial system ... The core of this critique of the Newtonian basis is best explained through a comparison with the "centre of the universe" of Aristotelian physics: There is a centre of the universe towards which heavy bodies gravitate. Thus can be explained for example the spherical form of the earth. The unpleasant part of it is that this centre of the universe operates on everything else, but that everything else ... does not reciprocally work on the centre of the universe ... This is exactly the case with the inertial system. It defines the inertial behaviour of things everywhere, without being influenced by them ... The essence of the general theory of relativity lies in surmounting the inertial system'. Over six detailed paragraphs, Einstein goes on to follow the logical thread that links general relativity via the definition of a displacement field to the foundation of any relativistic field theory and thence to the theory of the pure gravitational field and asymmetrical field theory. At this point, Einstein confesses: 'That I do not know whether this theory holds true in physical terms lies solely in the fact that no one has managed to establish anything about the existence and construction of solutions to these non-linear systems of equations which would be everywhere free of singularities'. He emphasis that it is not the case that this theory can only be defined through the demands of relativity, explaining how it could be reached through the normal theory of gravitation, although this would involve bringing together 'expressions which logically have nothing to do with each other. I am sufficiently religious to be persuaded that this universe is not so cobbled together'. The letter concludes by an extraordinary and moving admission of the possibility that the research into unified field theory which has preoccupied the last decades of his life – as well as the whole of contemporary physics – might well be constructed on erroneous foundations: 'In this sense the theory is therefore quite sufficiently clearly determined through the demands of relativity. I consider it however as perfectly possible that physics may not be founded on the notion of the field, i.e. on a continuous construction. Then out of my entire cloud-castle including the theory of gravitation, but also of all of the rest of current physics, there remains nothing '. Published (in French and German) in Pierre Speziali (ed. and tr.). Albert Einstein. Michele Besso. Correspondance 1903-1955 . Paris: Hermann, 1972. No. 210. This remarkable apologia is the last surviving letter from Einstein to his closest friend.
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). Autograph letter signed ('A.E.') to Michele Besso, [Princeton], 10 August 1954. In German, 2 2/3 pages, 278 x 215mm, the date alone added in typescript. Envelope. Partial transcription by Besso on a separate leaf. Provenance : by descent from Michele Besso. A comprehensive account of the formal logic behind his entire life's work, tracing the path from special relativity to general relativity and the unified field theory. Besso has written with a characterisation of the general theory of relativity, which Einstein considers to have accurately represented its 'genetic aspect'; he proposes to add to this an analysis from the point of view of formal logic. 'For as long as one cannot grasp the empirical content of the theory because of temporarily insurmountable mathematical difficulties, its logical simplicity is the only -- although also naturally insufficient – criterion of the theory's value'. Einstein's analysis begins with special relativity: 'The theory of special relativity is actually nothing other than an adaptation of the idea of the inertial system to the empirically corroborated conviction of the constancy of the speed of light with respect to any inertial system ... The core of this critique of the Newtonian basis is best explained through a comparison with the "centre of the universe" of Aristotelian physics: There is a centre of the universe towards which heavy bodies gravitate. Thus can be explained for example the spherical form of the earth. The unpleasant part of it is that this centre of the universe operates on everything else, but that everything else ... does not reciprocally work on the centre of the universe ... This is exactly the case with the inertial system. It defines the inertial behaviour of things everywhere, without being influenced by them ... The essence of the general theory of relativity lies in surmounting the inertial system'. Over six detailed paragraphs, Einstein goes on to follow the logical thread that links general relativity via the definition of a displacement field to the foundation of any relativistic field theory and thence to the theory of the pure gravitational field and asymmetrical field theory. At this point, Einstein confesses: 'That I do not know whether this theory holds true in physical terms lies solely in the fact that no one has managed to establish anything about the existence and construction of solutions to these non-linear systems of equations which would be everywhere free of singularities'. He emphasis that it is not the case that this theory can only be defined through the demands of relativity, explaining how it could be reached through the normal theory of gravitation, although this would involve bringing together 'expressions which logically have nothing to do with each other. I am sufficiently religious to be persuaded that this universe is not so cobbled together'. The letter concludes by an extraordinary and moving admission of the possibility that the research into unified field theory which has preoccupied the last decades of his life – as well as the whole of contemporary physics – might well be constructed on erroneous foundations: 'In this sense the theory is therefore quite sufficiently clearly determined through the demands of relativity. I consider it however as perfectly possible that physics may not be founded on the notion of the field, i.e. on a continuous construction. Then out of my entire cloud-castle including the theory of gravitation, but also of all of the rest of current physics, there remains nothing '. Published (in French and German) in Pierre Speziali (ed. and tr.). Albert Einstein. Michele Besso. Correspondance 1903-1955 . Paris: Hermann, 1972. No. 210. This remarkable apologia is the last surviving letter from Einstein to his closest friend.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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