New perspectives on the iconic physicist's scientific and
philosophical formation
At the end of World War II, Albert Einstein was invited to write his
intellectual autobiography for the Library of Living Philosophers. The
resulting book was his uniquely personal Autobiographical Notes, a
classic work in the history of science that explains the development of
his ideas with unmatched warmth and clarity. Hanoch Gutfreund and Jürgen
Renn introduce Einstein's scientific reflections to today's readers,
tracing his intellectual formation from childhood to old age and
offering a compelling portrait of the making of a philosopher-scientist.
Einstein on Einstein features the full English text of
Autobiographical Notes along with incisive essays that place
Einstein's reflections in the context of the different stages of his
scientific life. Gutfreund and Renn draw on Einstein's writings,
personal correspondence, and critical writings by Einstein's
contemporaries to provide new perspectives on his greatest discoveries.
Also included are Einstein's responses to his critics, which shed
additional light on his scientific and philosophical worldview.
Gutfreund and Renn quote extensively from Einstein's initial,
unpublished attempts to formulate his response, and also look at another
brief autobiographical text by Einstein, written a few weeks before his
death, which is published here for the first time in English.
Complete with evocative drawings by artist Laurent Taudin, Einstein on
Einstein illuminates the iconic physicist's journey to general
relativity while situating his revolutionary ideas alongside other
astonishing scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century.
