July-August 2005
Icons of Science
Einstein may be considered, along with Isaac Newton, as the greatest discoverer of universal principles of Nature. But the twentieth-century view of Einstein always has been more complex than the eighteenth-century image of Newton, says Seymour Mauskopf, a Duke historian of science.
The culture of Newton's time celebrated rational science--in particular its power "to enlighten us about the laws and harmony of Nature, and thereby to enable us to improve ourselves and to reform the societies in which we live," says Mauskopf. Newton had been deeply interested in alchemy and consumed by biblical exegesis. For many years he lived as a recluse. But it was Newton's accomplishments and not his eccentricities that were accented in the eighteenth century.
"Newton was revered almost as a deity, but a secular one whose domain was material and rational, rather than spiritual and supernatural," Mauskopf says. Indeed, eighteenth-century rhetoric often seemed to highlight the parallel between the fulfilling role of the Christian God and of the new secular god of science, as in Alexander Pope's famous couplet: "Nature, and Nature's laws lay hid in night./God said: 'Let Newton be!' and all was light." Newton was celebrated in Voltaire's Philosophical Letters as being even greater than Alexander the Great--as having the sort of "superior genius" that made him "able to penetrate into the hidden secrets of nature."
Although Newton's concept of gravity as a force acting at a distance over the void of space was difficult for many of his contemporaries to comprehend, the action of gravity itself was unproblematic: "We all drop things, and we fall down," Mauskopf says. "Demonstrating that the law that governs these actions is the same law that governs the motions of the planets and stars reinforced the intelligibility of the world."
In contrast, Einstein's theories resulted in popular perplexity and mystification. His speculations always seemed difficult, arcane, bizarre, and--after the dropping of the atomic bomb--very dangerous. "I, for one, can't picture the equation E=mc2 without a mushroom cloud behind it," says Mauskopf.
"Einstein's strange science is reflected in his popular image," Mauskopf says. "No one in modern times is more synonymous with 'genius' than Einstein. But his 'genius' is very different from the rational 'superior genius' of Voltaire's Newton. It is more hyperbolic super-genius--part wizard, part visionary, eccentric, and oddball, all with a touch, perhaps of the mad scientist. Just as the Newtonian intelligible universe gave way to a mysterious, incomprehensible one (to nonphysicists), so the image of Newton's immense but still understandable genius yielded to the much more incredible one of Einstein."
The contrasting images of Einstein and Newton may reflect more than those particular scientists and their particular scientific contributions. According to Mauskopf, eighteenth-century optimism about the role of science in perfecting humanity--materially and morally--has largely dissipated.
"The traumas of the wars of the twentieth century put an end, for all practical purposes, to such optimism," Mauskopf says. "And the last third of the century witnessed almost an inversion of Enlightenment optimism about science and human improvement. The scientific enterprise itself suffered fundamental criticism. The special claim to objectivity of scientific knowledge has been de-privileged, the utility of scientific knowledge for material improvement through science-based technology has been critically challenged, the moral superiority of science has been debunked as yet just another ideological ploy to maintain power."
Einstein, then, is viewed with ambivalence: Einstein's revolution inspired awe of his genius and dread of its consequences.
--Robert J. Bliwise