tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post9185606446627347804..comments2024-02-28T02:22:20.886-08:00Comments on homunculus: Einstein and his precursorsPhilip Ballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09986655706443117158noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-52523518331476774212011-06-24T01:21:04.545-07:002011-06-24T01:21:04.545-07:00Jim,
By no means all cranks are nasty little peopl...Jim,<br />By no means all cranks are nasty little people. I suspect most are not. But Lenard was.<br />Allen,<br />Thanks for this. Yes, I was a little cavalier about Maric. I do think that those claims are cranky in the sense of representing a case of ideology trumping rationality, as you point out. (And the historical injustice was of course in the general sense very real.) But no, the motivation here isn't primarily "anti-Einstein" (though in fact it does seem that he was very far from being a saint in his marital relationships).Philip Ballhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09986655706443117158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-3883830991572564372011-06-24T00:16:43.913-07:002011-06-24T00:16:43.913-07:00"On Maric: yes, that's another aspect of ...<i>"On Maric: yes, that's another aspect of anti-Einstein crankiness, for sure."</i><br /><br />So are you intimating that feminists are: "bitter, jealous, socially inadequate, feeling excluded...", and 'nasty little people'?JimmyGirohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01548795180321590463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-45031257728879188752011-06-23T16:50:31.584-07:002011-06-23T16:50:31.584-07:00Philip: Although anti-Einstein cranks have jumped ...Philip: Although anti-Einstein cranks have jumped on the bandwagon, I don't believe the main proponents of the Maric story have been motivated by what one might call traditional anti-Einstein sentiments. Having in recent years critically examined the writings of all the main proponents, I'd say the motivation is the conviction that they are righting an historical injustice perpetrated on a female (supposed) scientist by a male scientific establishment that is still hellbent on concealing the true facts about Maric's role. Their concern is not to put Einstein down, but to elevate Maric to the position of collaborator, and probable co-author, of (at least) his 1905 papers. Unfortunately their ideological zeal is matched by an ignorance of the physics involved, relevant aspects of Einstein's early accomplishments, and a corresponding misapprehension of Maric's academic limitations. They also have a naive propensity to believe information supposedly supporting their contentions on the basis of nothing more than that they read it in a book, predominantly in Desanka Trbuhovic-Gjuric's biography of Maric in which the numerous sections promoting Maric's role, and purporting to demonstrate Einstein's (conventional) mathematical limitations, are deeply flawed.<br /><br />Just how far the mythological role of Maric has penetrated into the mainstream is indicated by the fact that the 2008-2009 Europa Diary, distributed to 23,000 schools in the European Union, cites Mileva Marić as "Einstein’s first wife, confidant and colleague – and co-developer of his Theory of Relativity". <br /><br />My critical analyses of the writings of the main proponents of the Maric stories are here:<br />http://www.esterson.orgAllen Estersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17491156258207476617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-57103276199271554572011-06-23T13:47:58.547-07:002011-06-23T13:47:58.547-07:00Oh Jim, you make it sound as though I was making a...Oh Jim, you make it sound as though I was making a list of your virtues and unjustly left one out. Anyway, misogyny is optional - the main point is to have a group on whom you can pile your resentments. For Lenard, it was initially the English (because J. J. Thomson didn't cite him fairly, he felt), but then this was transferred to the Jews.<br />On Maric: yes, that's another aspect of anti-Einstein crankiness, for sure.Philip Ballhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09986655706443117158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-79055207019402465562011-06-23T10:10:24.437-07:002011-06-23T10:10:24.437-07:00"bitter, jealous, socially inadequate, feelin...<i>"bitter, jealous, socially inadequate, feeling excluded..."</i><br /><br />You forgot 'misogynous'. By the way, what do you think of those feminist 'cranks' that believe Einstein's first wife, Mileva Maric, came up with the theories?JimmyGirohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01548795180321590463noreply@blogger.com