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> I think when Einstein or Newton make statements they are making statements about reality and not just sense impressions. Einstein in particular made huge str

> I think when Einstein or Newton make statements they are making statements about reality and not just sense impressions. Einstein in particular made huge strides by thinking in terms of sense impressions, e.g. by using his imagination to take on the perspective of an observer falling off a roof: > I got the happiest thought of my life in the following form:…for an observer in free-fall from the roof of a house there is…no gravitational field. Namely, if the observer lets go of any bodies, they remain relative to him, in a state of rest or uniform motion, independent of their special chemical or physical nature. The observer, therefore, is justified in interpreting his state as being "at rest." The emphasis on sense impressions over an appeal to an external reality is something he owes to Mach: https://blog.superb-owl.link/p/church-of-reality-ernst-mach-on-mind/ https://blog.superb-owl.link/p/church-of-reality-ernst-mach-...

mannykannot 3y ago
On the other hand, Einstein's goal in the second of his annus mirabilis papers (the one explaining Brownian motion) "was precisely to prove the reality of atoms", in the face of the then famous skepticism of thinkers like Mach. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/einstein-philscience/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/einstein-philscience/
n4r9 3y ago
Einstein had a very thoughftul and sophisticated take on the philosophy of science, and had thoroughly read the works of a great many philosophers and scientists. His introduction to an essay he wrote for the centenary of Maxwell's birth is another fantastic snippet: > The belief in an external world independent of the observing subject lies at the foundation of all natural science. However, since sense-perceptions only inform us about this external world, or physical reality, indirectly, it is only in a speculative way that it can be grasped by us. Consequently our conceptions of physical reality can never be final. We must always be ready to change these conceptions, i.e. the axiomatic basis of physics, in order to do justice to the facts of observation in the most complete way that is logically possible. In actual fact, a glance at the development of physics shows that this axiomatic basis has met with radical changes from time to time. https://d-meeus.be/physique/Maxwell-Einstein-en.html https://d-meeus.be/physique/Maxwell-Einstein-en.html It's a little disappointing that his best known quotation is the out-of-context "God does not play dice".

mannykannot 3y ago

On the other hand, Einstein's goal in the second of his annus mirabilis papers (the one explaining Brownian motion) "was precisely to prove the reality of atoms", in the face of the then famous skepticism of thinkers like Mach. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/einstein-philscience/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/einstein-philscience/

n4r9 3y ago

Einstein had a very thoughftul and sophisticated take on the philosophy of science, and had thoroughly read the works of a great many philosophers and scientists. His introduction to an essay he wrote for the centenary of Maxwell's birth is another fantastic snippet: > The belief in an external world independent of the observing subject lies at the foundation of all natural science. However, since sense-perceptions only inform us about this external world, or physical reality, indirectly, it is only in a speculative way that it can be grasped by us. Consequently our conceptions of physical reality can never be final. We must always be ready to change these conceptions, i.e. the axiomatic basis of physics, in order to do justice to the facts of observation in the most complete way that is logically possible. In actual fact, a glance at the development of physics shows that this axiomatic basis has met with radical changes from time to time. https://d-meeus.be/physique/Maxwell-Einstein-en.html https://d-meeus.be/physique/Maxwell-Einstein-en.html It's a little disappointing that his best known quotation is the out-of-context "God does not play dice".