Einstein’s honesty and humility focus of lecture

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt kicks off "Think Einstein, 2005."

By: David Campbell
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is part of a continuing series The Packet is running throughout 2005, the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s "annus mirabilis" — his miraculous year.
David CampbellStaff Writer
   U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, in a lecture Thursday evening on the centenary of Albert Einstein’s miraculous year, cited a lack today of the very qualities in Einstein being celebrated this year — intellectual honesty and protections against arrogance.
   "We would do well to have a little more reliance on evidence than we do on ideology," said Rep. Holt (D-12), who delivered the Historical Society of Princeton’s annual Lewis B. Cuyler lecture at the Computer Sciences Building on the Princeton University campus.
   The lecture also kicked off "Think Einstein 2005," a Princetonwide celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s "annus mirabilis," or miraculous year, which is being spearheaded by the historical society.
   In 1905, Einstein published five influential scientific papers, two of which introduced his special theory of relativity as well as his famous formula E = MC¯.
   Under the auspices and leadership of the historical society, the year-long "Think Einstein 2005" celebration will present scholarly lectures, discussions, exhibits, films, book talks, as well as school and family programs.
   Rep. Holt’s talk, coming on the heels of the inauguration of President George W. Bush to his second term in office, was not without political undertones, both personal and partisan.
   The congressman touched upon his own dual background as physicist and politician, and compared the two, describing science as "one way of knowing, one way of dealing with human affairs," and politics as another.
   "Politics is not a progression toward pure truth, it’s a balance of interests," Rep. Holt continued, and touted science as "our best protection against self-deception — we need badly in this era, or any era, protection against self-deception."
   The congressman, a former assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, said science — seeking answers to questions empirically and reliably— is a means to overcome arrogance because it "is a way of telling you repeatedly you’re not so special."
   Such an empirical, non-self-deceiving approach would have served well in Washington, he said, when Congress was debating whether to wage war on Iraq over weapons of mass destruction, which never materialized after the invasion.
   Rep. Holt said Galileo today is put on a pedestal because he valued evidence over ideology, and said Einstein took this ideal to "sublime heights."
   And yet, the congressman continued, Einstein was not arrogant. Rather, he said, the famous physicist’s brilliant insights rendered him modest before nature’s elegant simplicity.
   "As good as he was, as good as he knew he was, he wasn’t arrogant," Rep. Holt said of Einstein. "He would be appalled that someone thought to preserve his brain after he died."
   The congressman said Einstein asked deceptively simple questions that led to his groundbreaking scientific papers of 1905.
   "These papers were just absolutely remarkable," he said. "Albert Einstein asked some very simple questions, probing questions," and he was tenaciously persistent in seeking answers. "He held those questions up to the light," the congressman said.
   Rep. Holt said Einstein saw the inherent simplicity in the beauty of nature, but said he found it to be so sublime that one might not see the simplicity of it.
   "It requires some very simple thinking to get at it," Rep. Holt said.