People's Democracy

Albert Einstein: Epoch Making Scientist

& Champion of Socialism

 S M Paranjape

ALBERT EINSTEIN, the scientist whose name is closely associated in the mind of the common man with "incomparable genius" died 50 years ago. But this year (2005) is being observed as the centenary year of the one in which this genius changed forever the way the we conceive of the world around us. Einstein wrote not one or two but four earth-shaking papers in the year 1905 for which the year has been called as the Miracle Year. The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics resolved that 2005 be commemorated as the World Year of Physics.

This has happened only once before in the history of mankind: in the year 1666-1667 when Isaac Newton penned his celebrated papers on calculus, Mechanics and Universal Gravitation. And, ironically, when Einstein wrote his papers a century ago, he overturned all the basic features of the Newtonian world-view and especially the notions of immutable time and immutable space which concern each one of us in some form or the other. Although each one of Einstein’s four papers was worthy of being considered for a Nobel Prize, he ultimately received the Nobel Prize for only one paper - the one on the photo-effect - and that too in the year 1922.

HUMBLE BACKGROUND

Moreover, unlike Newton who was an established scientist ranked among the top researchers of his time and also a member of the aristocracy, Albert Einstein was a non-entity when he wrote his papers. In fact, his paper submitted for the Ph.D. degree in the year 1901 was rejected by the University. As is well-known, he was working as clerk in the patent office when all these epoch-making discoveries were made by him. This proletarian strain in Einstein and his damning indictment of monopoly capitalism together with staunch advocacy of socialism, in his celebrated article in the inaugural issue of Monthly Review cannot be termed a as mere coincidence; more on this later.

The genius within Einstein did not allow him to rest contented with his earlier discoveries. He followed up the work on the special theory of relativity, by developing the general theory in the year 1916. This forced the scientific community to completely overhaul its conception of the phenomenon of gravitation. Newton's' law of universal gravitation had successfully explained the solar planetary system, and had even led to the discovery of new planets. But Einstein's formulation of gravitation as a phenomenon intimately linked to the structure of space-time resulted in the dismantling of the very foundations of Newton's theory without changing any of its prominent predictions! The proof of the correctness of Einstein's general relativity came within barely four years of its formulation in the year 1919, when its prediction of the bending of light coming from distant stars when it passed close to the Sun was unequivocally demonstrated. Albert Einstein was thereafter acknowledged not only as the leading scientist of the day, but as a rare phenomenon which occurs over the time scale of millenia. And the greatness of his theory can be gauged from the fact even in the 21st century the implications of the general theory of relativity continue to occupy centre-stage of front-line research in physics. The same is true of his work in statistical mechanics viz. Bose-Einstein condensation, which predicts a new state of matter which does not occur in nature, and which has been created in the laboratory only at the fag end of the 20th century.

THE MIRACLE PAPERS

For want of space we shall consider only briefly the papers which Einstein published during the miracle year of 1905. What made these papers remarkable is that in each case, Einstein boldly took an idea from the theoretical physics of his day to its logical consequences and managed to explain experimental results that had baffled scientists for decades.

In his paper on photoelectric effect Einstein proposed the idea of "energy quanta" and showed how it could be used to explain such phenomena as the photoelectric effect. It concerns the knocking out of electrons from a metal surface when ultra-violet light is made to shine on it, and is now widely used in devices such as burglar alarms.

His second paper “Brownian Motion” that year put forth a model of Brownian motion based on randomness. Through this paper Einstein demonstrated that Brownian motion provided empirical evidence for the existence of atoms! Because the random motion of the visible pollen grains is due to the underlying random motion of the water/fluid molecules in which they are immersed.

Einstein's third paper “Special Relativity” was a highly self-contained work. This paper introduced a theory of time, distance, mass and energy which was consistent with electromagnetism, but omitted the force of gravity. The logo shown below is meant to represent the light cone diagram used in special relativity to show locations that are in causal contact and those that are not. Special relativity avoids the problem in science that was present after the Michelson-Morley experiment failed to measure a speed difference between perpendicular light beams, by postulating that the speed of light is not relative to some medium and is the same for all observers irrespective of their relative velocities. This is unlike all other known waves, which require a medium (such as water or air) to propagate.

Einstein's explanation arises from two postulates: The first is Galileo's idea that the laws of nature are the same for all observers that move with constant velocity relative to each other. The second was that the speed of light is the same for every observer. Special relativity has several striking consequences, because the concepts of absolute time and space are incompatible with an absolute speed of light. The theory abounds with paradoxes and appeared to make little sense.

Einstein's special theory of relativity heralded a new kind of physics, one that digressed from the classical mechanics that had been derived from Newton's calculus. However, one of its main consequences was subversive for the whole of classical Newtonian Physics. This is the equation E = mc² which is crucial in explaining the entire gamut of phenomena known as radioactivity. The disappearance of matter or rather its transmutation into energy defied the laws of Newtonian physics, whose very cornerstone is the mass of a particle that is considered to be immutable. Lenin was quick to grasp the philosophical significance of this development and rebuffed the onslaught of the opponents of philosophical materialism who had considered this as the proof of invalidation of materialism itself. Thus came forth the widest possible characterisation of "matter" as that which exists independent of consciousness, irrespective of the particular form - electromagnetic, neutrino-like, or whatever. The full significance of this equation dawned on humanity only after the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Although his 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect helped spur the development of quantum mechanics, Einstein himself considered quantum theory, which introduced the concept of uncertainty into the laws of the physical world, incomplete.

EINSTEIN'S SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Einstein's genius did not stop at purveying the physical world. He also examined critically the social conditions under capitalism and expressed himself unequivocally in favour of socialism in his article which appeared in the inaugural issue of Monthly Review not only provided a critique of capitalism but also forcefully asserted that for eliminating evils of capitalism, establishment of a socialist economy must be accomplished.

EINSTEIN ON CAPITALISM

Stressing that biological nature of man for all practical purposes is not subject to change, Einstein argued that the man is now more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society but unfortunately he perceives it as a threat to his natural rights as well as his economic existence. Thus human beings have now become prisoners of their egotism. “They feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society...”

Einstein further argued that the economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today was as the real source of the evil. He opined “We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labuor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production—that is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goods—may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals..."

Elaborating on the mechanics of capitalism Einstein wrote "For the sake of simplicity, in the discussion that follows I shall call “workers” all those who do not share in the ownership of the means of production…. The owner of the means of production is in a position to purchase the labour power of the worker. By using the means of production, the worker produces new goods which become the property of the capitalist. The essential point about this process is the relation between what the worker produces and what he is paid, both measured in terms of real value. Insofar as the labour contract is “free,” what the worker receives is determined not by the real value of the goods he produces, but by his minimum needs and by the capitalists' requirements for labor power in relation to the number of workers competing for jobs. It is important to understand that even in theory the payment of the worker is not determined by the value of his product."

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society.” Einstein’s observations in this regard reflect his profound understanding of the working of the capitalists system. He pointed out that under capitalism all democratic institutions serve the interest of the ruling classes rather then the underprivileged sections of the population. 

And the scientist in him is not content with diagnosing the problem, but also seeks out the solution. Expressing that production is carried out for profit than for use, he argues that there is nothing in the system that would ensure employment to all. The profit motive in conjunction with competition among capitalists inevitably results into increasingly severe depression. Obviously this leads to colossal waste of labour and crippling consciousness of individual. Thus he wrote.    

"This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child.” (Emphasis added) Einstein did not perceive planned economies of erstwhile Soviet Union and East European countries as socialism. He argued that a planned economy could suffer from bureaucratic centralisation accompanied by complete enslavement of the individual. In his opinion, achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems, such as preventing bureaucracy from becoming all powerful and protecting rights of individuals.