Einstein.

Here I sit in the basement of my grandparents' house in NW Indiana. One week ago I spent the week here and got two deer (both female). Now I'm back for the weekend, finishing unfinished business with the hide of the second deer. As part of killing free time, I browsed my grandpa's collection of books and came across a collection of essays published in 1950 by Albert Einstein - essays that cover everything from religion, morality, education, and a few that discuss science.

I'm not very far in, but already I'm somewhat surprised. As undoubtedly one of the greatest thinkers of recent history if not all time, his priorities and interests and personal angle seem much more obvious and self-assured than I would have expected. He does not present much argument proving his basis of assumptions is right - he completely passes that up saying ideas of that sort are not points in need of proof so much as a fact of existence, much like the laws of nature. He does clearly define what that basis is, but he so arrogantly lays down his presuppositions that the rest of his points are hardly worth arguing against if you do not share his same worldview. That is not to say he does not make good points, but he certainly goes in different directions than I would based on a number of presented facts.

I suppose the assumptions he uses are not the meat of what he is trying to communicate in the essays, but he still presents a relatively unilateral worldview, measuring plenty of depth but rather lacking in width. Maybe I was expecting too much going in, having heard a few quotes from his writings and knowing his reputation as both a physicist and a philosopher.