Important Aspects of Albert Einstein’s Life

Attitudes Toward School and Conflicts with Teachers

Albert Einstein is arguably one of the most famous scientists in physics of the twentieth century. During his short biography, he revolutionized the way people think about science. He is recognized as the greatest theoretical physicist who ever lived. Countless discoveries were made because of him, both during his lifetime and after his death. One of the facts of his life is that his school performance was mediocre as a child. Contrary to popular myth, the future genius was doing well in school, but he was disliked by many teachers, which created certain problems. He, like most children, did not like school and preferred to study at home.

The Principle of Questioning Everything

Einstein rejected status-based authority ever since he was a schoolboy. Until the age of 12, Albert remained a believer, although later he got curious about scientific books and started to doubt both religious and societal beliefs. Einstein hated obeying rules and learning things that did not interest him. He associated his teachers with soldiers and resented the dominant militaristic attitude of the time. His skepticism and stubbornness undermined all the teachers’ authority. Up until the end of his life he continued to be very skeptical and challenged theories that seemed unconvincing to him.

Einstein’s Two Theories of Relativity

Albert Einstein is an amazing man who surprised the world with his unconventional imaginative thinking and unique approach to problem-solving. The scientist’s 1905 special theory of relativity shattered notions of time and space that had existed in science since Newton’s time (Koberlein, 2021). Presented in 1915, the general theory of relativity for the first three years interested few specialists (Francis, 2017). However, in 1919, direct observation verified one of the paradoxical predictions of this theory (Francis, 2017). It turned out that a beam of light coming from a faraway star is bent by the Sun’s gravitational field. Due to this experiment, Albert’s opinion became one of the most authoritative in the world.

Attitudes Toward the War and the Army

Einstein spoke out vigorously against fascism, occupation, and any government repression of human liberty. He once said that even if two percent of young people in the United States refused to serve in the army, there was nothing the government could do about it because the prisons would simply overflow. These words contributed to the flowering of the anti-war movement in America. Adherents of this idea wore badges with “2%” on them until the 1970s (Francis, 2017). The researcher thought that his involvement in the production of the atomic bomb was the most serious mistake he ever made. It was something he regretted for the rest of his life.

The Scholar’s Love of Books

Einstein had loved books since childhood; as a schoolboy, he read Euclid’s Elements and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. These works strongly influenced his perception of life. At university, Albert skipped uninteresting lectures and instead studied scientific journals. His interests were in various fields of knowledge, including mathematics and physics, as well as psychology. However, there was one genre that Einstein did not like – science fiction; he believed that it contributed to the reality warping. It is known that Einstein reread The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky several times throughout his life. Reading books shaped the scholar’s worldview, and many of his letters trace the influence of Einstein’s favorite authors.

Suspicion of Being a Spy for the Soviet Union

Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of the twentieth century, was enormously popular. He was hounded by women, harassed by celebrities, courted by politicians, and stalked by journalists in the streets. When the scholar worked in the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation accused him of espionage in favor of the USSR (Waldrop, 2017). Investigators were concerned about his pacifist activities and his support for civil rights groups. Fantastic accusations were also made that Einstein was allegedly heading a Communist plot against Hollywood. Einstein was being monitored, and his phone calls were tapped. Only after Albert Einstein died did the authorities decide to let the public know this information.

References

Francis, M. (2017). How Albert Einstein used his fame to denounce American racism. Smithsonian Magazine. 

Getty Images. (2018). Albert Einstein smoking pipe at table [Photo].

GettyImages. (2018). Einstein at Princeton [Photo].

GettyImages. (2018). Newspaper headline announcing death of Albert Einstein [Photo].

Koberlein, B. (2021). A major Einstein theory was just prover right, 106 years after. Inverse.

Waldrop, M. (2017). Why the FBI Kept a 1,400-Page File on Einstein. National Geographic. 

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StudyCorgi. 2023. "Important Aspects of Albert Einstein’s Life." April 1, 2023. https://studycorgi.com/important-aspects-of-albert-einsteins-life/.

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