In any case, it would be a mistake to claim that Einstein was the greatest among all scientists who brought a revolution in physics. There can be little doubt that there is nothing revolutionary in theory of relativity, and the predominant motivations that led Einstein to the development of his theory were not purely scientific considerations, but personal, subjective complexities that arose from his ambitious desire to become a scientific hero, priest or some special person. Through fortuitous circumstances, he exploited sociopolitical condition of his time well and eventually, succeeded.

 

We have many hidden complexities in Einstein’s thoughts which make it difficult to give any fair appraisal, or some form of comprehensive evaluation of Albert Einstein, from a psychological and psychoanalytical perspective that can explain his  gurudom, his hold on the world of physics. In his Kyoto lecture, Einstein himself remarked: “It is not easy to talk about how I reached the idea of the theory of relativity; there were so many hidden complexities to motivate my thought, and the impact of each thought was different at different stages in the development of the idea. I will not mention them all here.”[i]

 

In 1919, Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was tested during a solar eclipse. Two British astronomers Arthur Eddington and Sir Frances Dyson by selective manipulation of data when declared the theory to be correct, Einstein became a worldwide celebrity overnight. I have already shown by what dynamics and how instantly Einstein became famous, so no surprise how Einstein was hounded by reporters and photographers wherever his foots touched the earth, soil became hallowed. He was showered honorary degrees and asked to hallow other places in countries around the world. Albert and Elsa took pilgrimage to the United States, Japan, Palestine (now Israel), South America, and throughout Europe. They were in Japan when good arrived that Einstein had been honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics. Good sense prevailed on him as he gave all the prize money to Mileva to support the kids.

 

From 1922 until the end of his life, Einstein worked on further befooling the world by finding a “unified field theory.” Believing that god is not a gambler “God does not play dice,” Einstein made futile attempt to search a single, unified theory that could combine all the fundamental forces of physics between elementary particles and could be printed on a T shirt. Einstein never found it.

 

In the years after World War II, Einstein advocated for a world government and for civil rights. If his dreams came true, he would have been a “World Emperor” nothing less than that. However, in 1952, after the death of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, when he was offered the presidency of Israel, Einstein declined. Moreover, realizing that he had already ruled scientific world a lot, and politics was not good in public life mere at a country level, and too aged to learn something new, Einstein declined the honor.

 

On April 12, 1955, Einstein broke down at his home. He refused treatment as he did not want to prolog his life further. Just six days later, on April 18, 1955, Einstein died, actually,   the aneurysm that he had been living with for several years had busted. He was 76 years old.




REFERENCES:

[i] Albert Einstein, How I Created the Theory of Relativity, Physics Today, Vol. 35, No.8, pp. 45-47

http://photontheory.com/Einstein/Einstein02.html

 

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