INTRODUCTION
TO VOLUME
8
liii
the
publication
of
Weyl’s
first
paper
on
the
theory
in
the
proceedings
of
the Berlin
Academy.
Einstein
did
everything
he could
to
ensure
that the
paper,
Weyl
1918b,
was published anyway.
Throughout
their debate
over
the
new theory,
the mathematician
Weyl proved
remarkably
resourceful in
finding ways
to
counter Einstein’s
seemingly
devastat-
ing physical objections.
Einstein, however,
remained
unconvinced. In
one
of
the
last
letters
of
the debate
(Doc. 669), Weyl
conjured up
the
image
of
his
adversary
throwing up
his
hands, reproaching
him for his
mathematically
driven
speculative
approach,
and
exclaiming:
“That’s
not
how
you
do
physics!” Recalling
the debate
over
three decades
later,[44] Weyl
put
this
same phrase
in Einstein’s
mouth,
and
noted that he
and Einstein
had
since switched
positions
in this
regard.
Einstein
had
come
to
rely more
and
more on purely
mathematical
speculation,
whereas
Weyl
had been humbled
by
the
important
role
of
empirical
considerations in the devel-
opment
of
quantum physics.
The seeds for Einstein’s later attitude
may
have
been
sown during
the
period
covered
by
this volume.
Exchanges
with
prominent
math-
ematicians such
as
Levi-Civita, Hilbert, Klein,
and
Weyl
account
for
a growing per-
centage
of
Einstein’s scientific
correspondence during
the
war
years.
And it
seems
plausible,
as
has often been
suggested,
that
Einstein
took
away
a
powerful
lesson
from
his
experience
in November
1915,
when
Hilbert,
proceeding along entirely
mathematical
lines,
almost
stole his thunder
as
he
was finally getting
close
to
vic-
tory
in his
three-year struggle
to
overcome
various
physical objections
to
generally
covariant
gravitational
field
equations. Yet,
as we
leave Einstein at the end
of
1918,
he is still
relying
on
his
strong physical
intuition
rather
than
on
considerations
of
mathematical
elegance
in his search for
physical
truth.
[1]Vol.
5,
Doc.
493,
note 4.
[2]By
comparison,
the full
range
of
correspondence
presented in Volume
5
for the twelve
years
from
1902 until 1914 extends to just
over
500 documents.
[3]
Prospective
members
were
the scientific
paladins
of
Berlin: Fritz
Haber,
Walther
Nernst,
Max
Planck,
Heinrich
Rubens,
and
Emil
Warburg.
Einstein
was
to
be
“permanent honorary secretary”
(see
Vol.
5,
Doc.
513,
note
6).
[4]Due
to withdrawal
of
support by
the Prussian
government
at the outbreak
of
the
war
(see
Doc.
18,
note
1).
[5]Letters to
Otto
Naumann,
Adolf
von
Harnack,
Hugo
Kruss,
and Ernst
Trendelenburg.
[6]Einstein’s maternal
aunt
and
uncle,
Fanny
and
Rudolf
Einstein.
[7]Vol. 5,
Doc. 424.
[8]Gülzow
1969,
p.
234.
[9]Vol.
1,
Doc.
16.
[10]See, e.g.,
Fölsing 1993,
pp.
446-449.
[11]Einstein to
Kurt
Blumenfeld,
25 March 1955.
[12]See
Vol.
6, Introduction,
sec.
5,
for
a more
detailed
discussion of
these
papers.
[13]Einstein
1916j,
1916n
(Vol.
6,
Docs. 34 and
38).
[14]
See
Vol. 5,
Doc.
364, note 6,
for
more
details.
[15]Einstein
1913c
(Vol.
4,
Doc.
17).
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