Although Einstein's main contributions are related to physics, there is no doubt that he had a sincere interest in philosophy: in his life he studied philosophical writings from his high school years (when he first read a book by Kant). However, he never considered himself a philosopher in the strict sense of the term: his, rather than a philosophical system, was defined by Reichenbach as a "philosophical attitude".
As a thinker and philosopher, he was moved by a deep admiration for the systems of Spinoza and Schopenhauer. Of the former he was particularly fascinated by the holistic conception, that is, by the idea of the cosmos as a whole ordered according to the laws of an impersonal panic entity, while of the latter he shared the disenchanted vision of humanity; moreover, in the whole essay production it can be noticed how the Einsteinian style, linear and at the same time vibrant and full of highly suggestive passages, is comparable to that of some texts of the German philosopher (as shown by the caustic aphorisms). In the field of the philosophy of science, he affirmed the importance in his studies of the work of David Hume and of the epistemology of Ernst Mach, from which he however broke away in maturity.
Einstein supported on several occasions the importance of epistemology in contemporary science (so much so that in the last years of his life he affirmed "Science without epistemology, even if it can be conceived, is primitive and formless") and he himself accompanied his scientific work with a clear epistemological position, up to the point of speaking in his Scientific Autobiography of an "epistemological creed". In it he distinguishes the totality of sensible experiences (ie the data offered by nature) from the set of concepts and propositions used by science (ie the theoretical construction); the task of logical thought concerns only the part of the theoretical construction, which however in turn takes on meaning only from the connection, purely intuitive and not of a logical nature, with sensible experiences. In other words, for Einstein the system of concepts and prepositions used by science is a simple human creation which, however, assumes value and content only when it allows as much as possible to connect and connect the experimental data with the greater "economy" (or simplicity) of terms and propositions themselves.
Some authors have highlighted the relevance of Einstein's epistemological thought, as an element that would have favored the scientist in formulating a robust and coherent image of physical reality. His confidence in the intelligibility of the universe led him to a strictly deterministic conception, convincing him that "God does not play dice" as opposed to the intrinsically probabilistic results of quantum mechanics, to which he made indirectly important contributions.
Also famous is the correspondence that Einstein entertained with Sigmund Freud in the thirties, in which he questions the Why war, in such a disastrous period for humanity between the two world wars, obtaining intrinsically nature as an answer from the founder of psychoanalysis. aggressive of the human soul. Equally famous is the collection of essays on various themes As I see the world.
From this collection, Einstein's philosophical thinking on the meaning of life and other topics, from science, to Judaism, to politics and pacifism, is deduced.
Негізгі бет Albert Einstein - "The Meaning of Life" (How I see the world)
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