Einstein and Spinozza

Einstein's religious beliefs were a direct result of his love of Spinoza'a ethics in dealing with the dual questions concerning God and Free Will. Baruch Spinoza, like Einstein, was Jewish. He was a philosopher in 17th Century Amsterdam, where he was ex-communicated for his belief in Causal Determinism. (I did not know that the Jewish faith did ex-communications, having only heard previously of the practice in conjunction with the Catholic Church.) Causal Determinism is the belief that the existence of a superior being reveals itself in the harmony of nature and the natural order of all things. Einstein was interested in Spinoza as a way of reconciling science with his own religious beliefs.

I think that Einstein would be in agreement with the words of the late Pope John Paul II when he said, "Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes." I think he would have accepted that. I know that I do. It assumes the worst of both religion and science, while at the same time recognizing the strengths that each of the two bring to the human condition. In other words, it is a position of moderation.

In November of 1920, Einstein traveled to Spinoza's home in Leiden, Amsterdam for a visit. He even signed the guest book. The signature beneath his is that of Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, the nephew of the famed physicist, who accompanied him on the trip to Leiden. The visit so moved Einstein that he later wrote a poem about Spinoza, titled, "On Spinoza's Ethics."

I have reprinted the poem here, first in German, and then followed by the English translation. I have credited both translations to their sources at the end of each translation. The two lines in italics are ones which Einstein wrote and then put a line through, replacing them with the lines immediately following.

I have included them here simply because anything Einstein thought, or wrote, must be important in some way, even if I didn't fully understand it. The Latin phrase in the third line of the second verse translates as "For God's sake." Einstein uses the phrase here to call out Spinoza's aversion to faith alone, noting that the philosophy of amor dei "leaves him cold."

Zu Spinozas Ethik

Wie lieb ich diesen edlen Mann

Mehr als ich mit Worten sagen kann.

Doch fürcht' ich, dass er bleibt allein

Mit seinem strahlenen Heiligenschein.

So einen armen kleinen Wicht

Den führst du zu der Freiheit nicht

Der amor dei lässt ihn kalt

Das Leben zieht ihn mit Gewalt

Die Höhe bringt ihm nichts als Frost

Vernunft ist für ihn schale Kost

Besitz und Weib und Ehr' und Haus

Das füllt ihn von oben bis unten aus

Du musst schon gütig mir verzeih'n

Wenn hier mir fällt Münchhausen ein

Dem als Einzigem das Kunststück gedieh'n

Sich am eigenem Zopf aus dem Sumpf zu zieh'n

Du denkst sein Beispiel zeiget uns eben

Was diese Lehre dem Menschen kann geben

Mein lieber Sohn, was fällt dir ein?

Zur Nachtigall muss man geboren sein

Vertraue nicht dem tröstlichen Schein:

Zum Erhabenen muss man geboren sein.

Written circa 1920.

Transcribed from ms. facsimile, Albert Einstein Archive, 31-018

On Spinoza's Ethics

How I love this noble man

More than I can say with words.

Still, I fear he remains alone

With his shining halo.

Such a poor small lad

Whom you'll not lead to freedom

The amor dei leaves him cold

Mightily does this life attract him

Loftiness offers him nothing but frost

Reason for him is poor fare

Property and wife and honor and house

That fills him from top to bottom

You'll kindly forgive me

If Münchhausen here comes to mind

Who alone mastered the trick

Of pulling himself out of a swamp by his own pigtail

You think his example would show us

What this doctrine can give humankind

My dear son, what ever were you thinking?

One must be born a nightingale

Trust not the comforting façade

One must be born sublime

©2007-2008 English translation by Jonathan Ely