Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utastro.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!utastro!bill From: bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: Re: meta-physics Message-ID: <529@utastro.UUCP> Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 10:29:36 EDT Article-I.D.: utastro.529 Posted: Sun Aug 11 10:29:36 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 13-Aug-85 03:10:17 EDT References: <476@sri-arpa.ARPA> Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX Lines: 31 > I saw some references to Einstein saying though > he was "adventurous" in his thoughts, others could verify his > arguments. Not so. His ideas were rejected by the "scientific community" > for years before they accepted them. None the less, he continued. This is historically inaccurate. Einstein's theories, published in 1905, attracted attention quite early. Poincare, who died in 1912, was an early champion. Einstein received his Ph.D. in 1905, and by 1910 was already a FULL Professor. In 1912 he accepted the prestigious chair of theoretical physics at the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, and in 1914 became titular Professor of Physics and Director of Theoretical Physics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (Berlin). He was 35 at the time, barely nine years away from his Ph.D. This just isn't what happens to you when the "establishment" is rejecting your ideas! Even if the original statement had been accurate, I would question the logic of the original posting. It is the same old "they all laughed at (fill in name of famous person), therefore my pet idea must be correct" non sequitor that we see justifying many a crackpot idea. Do we have to have this in net.physics? Let's keep this kind of reasoning in net.origins, where it belongs! -- "Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from religious conviction." -- Blaise Pascal Bill Jefferys 8-% Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (USnail) {allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!bill (uucp) bill%utastro.UTEXAS@ut-sally.ARPA (ARPANET)