COLLECTIVEEVOLUTION
"What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow-creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life"So begins Albert Einstein's "The World As I See It", a collection of essays, articles and letters written between 1922 and 1934 focusing on the humane aspect of this scientific genius and revealing him as a man of compassion and wisdom acutely in tune with the problems faced by mankind, and the pressing need for science to serve the well-being of humanity, an ideal it clearly no longer serves.
"There are countless documentaries out there discussing Einstein's enduring legacy to modern science - few are unaware of his contributions to the field of theoretical physics: the general theory of relativity and the E" = "mc"2 formula for mass-energy equivalence are perhaps universally known (if not necessarily understood). By comparison, his political and religious views go largely unmentioned, concealed beneath the giant shadow looming from his immense scientific achievements. Reading "The World As I See It" and it is clear that overlooking this aspect of Einstein's life and thinking is a dramatic oversight.
On the meaning of life - a loaded subject on which "everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his endeavours and judgements" Einstein writes:
The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Without the sense of fellowship with men of like mind, of preoccupation with the objective, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have seemed to me empty. The ordinary objects of human endeavour - property, outward success, luxury - have always seemed to me contemptible.
While Einstein supported the political model in the United States of America (a very different beast at the time of writing compared to today) his sense of social justice prevented him from perceiving the State as superior to man himself.
The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the State but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.
Moreover, he saw how the shortcomings of political systems undermined culture and society.