Physics and Astronomy Public Lecture - Dr. Rebecca Goldstein, Harvard University

Title: "Why Did Einstein Write a (Bad) Love Poem to Spinoza?"

October 17, 2013
7 pm - 9 pm
Location
Wilder 104
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Tressena Manning
603-646-2854

Abstract:  Spinoza was a seventeenth-century über-rationalist who employed a truly bizarre methodology, attempting to prove everything — from the nature of the world, to human nature, to the ethical meaning of our lives — from first principles, in the axiomatic style of Euclid.  Why would a scientist take seriously anything this resolutely anti-empiricist pre-scientist had to say?  Somehow Einstein did, going so far as to write a poem entitled "Zu Spinozas Ethik," and opening with the words (in German)  "How much do I love this noble man?" Apparently a lot, but the question is why.

Location
Wilder 104
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Tressena Manning
603-646-2854