DOCS.
642,
643
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER
1918 685
642. To
Lise Meitner
[Berlin,
29
October
1918]
Dear
Miss
Meitner,
Bar’s notice
is
on
its
way
to
Regener[1]
in
the
same
post,
but
Meyer
wrote
me
that
he
is
already working
on
the
revision
of
his fluctuation
researches.[2]
It’s
good
that
we
did not
get
started.[3]
Cordial
regards, yours,
Einstein.
643. From
Paul
Bernays[1]
[Göttingen,]
2
November
1918
Esteemed
Professor,
Forgive me
for
only
today
acknowledging
receipt
of
your
kind
postcard
as
well
as
of
the returned
book.
I
wanted
to
add
a
couple
of
remarks at
the
same
time
and
was
not able to
come
to it
until
now.
It
is
quite
a
shame
that
Nelson’s Methodenlehre
[Methodology]
appealed
so
little
to
you.[2]
I
believe
I understand, to
some
extent,
why
it
goes
against
the
grain
for
you.
It
is
surely
that
merely
apparent
lack
of
presuppositions
in
the method
of
introducing
the
ethical
problems,
whereby
one
is
basically
steered toward
a
rational
ethics from
the
outset,
without
any
indication
of
an even
preliminary
view
toward life
as a
whole,
by
means
of
which
one
could
orientate
oneself
intuitively.
Although
I concede
this
to
be
an
essential
flaw
in
the
work,
I nonetheless
can-
not
refrain from
expressing my opinion,
in
view of
my familiarity
with Nelson’s
philosophical personality,
that
it would be
doing
an
injustice
to
Nelson
just to
be
willing
to
grant
him
subordinate talent
and routine.
It
is true
that
a
certain
over-
rating
of dialectic
argumentation
often finds
expression
in his
explanations.
Yet
such overestimation
is
found in
many
others,
even
among
the
greatest
philoso-
phers.
Besides,
the talent
for
logical
keenness and
clarity (disregarding
the
fact
that
it
really
is
very
desirable
in
an
academic teacher
and
is by
no means
particularly
prevalent nowadays
among philosophers)
does not
just
have
a
bootblack’s role
in
philosophy, perhaps,
but
rather, I
believe
that
essential
philosophical
tasks
exist
that
only
a
logically
trained
philosopher can accomplish.
Such
a
task
is,
for
example,
the
conceptual fixing
of
the
manner
of
evaluation,
which forms
the
basis
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