True, but that doesn’t refute my point. Einstein looked upon tolerance in a different way then we do. He might observe he doesn’t understand how Chinese men can find Chinese women attractive, but that was not considered racist or dehumanizing at the time. Indeed, the word “dehumanization” was barely used until after WWII, so how could he conceptualize the issue?
Einstein was making observations according to the science and cultural knowledge of the time. He had the prejudices of his time.
You’re still assuming he would have thought like someone a century later.
He wasnt so much asking how Chinese men were attracted to Chinese women as saying that Chinese women were so ugly that no one in his opinion would be interested in them. Tolerance is not a new intellectual concept. Some Islamic states and Holland were tolerant of the other long before the 20th.
Einstein wasnt a Christian. But I agree that a high IQ doesnt translate to a high emotional IQ. But his views would likely be out of the mainstream for German Jews of his era.
Your thesis was that Einstein, as a Jew, should have known better. But the verse that you cherry-picked to support your notion that Judaism has historically always embraced racial equality is obviously also part of the Christian bible, so it makes little sense to claim that Einstein, as a Jew, should have known any better than a Christian.
And how about this alternative snippet of Judeo-Christian cultural tolerance (Deuteronomy) that would presumably apply to pretty much all Chinese and Japanese people (Confucianists, Buddhists, etc.) of the time:
“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones.”
The idea that you can cherry-pick bible verses to claim anything about actual beliefs historically prevalent in any culture is nonsense.
Maybe, maybe not. Jews are, after all, influenced by the larger culture in which they are embedded. I’ve certainly met some bigoted Jews in my time (I occasionally have to deal with one now on an acquaintance level who says some jaw-dropping things about Black people from time to time) and European Jews (which Einstein was) certainly can have racial/ethnic bias similar to other Europeans.
Let’s draw a parallel here. I think at present we have a huge ethical blind spot in our cruel treatment of non-human animals. And I think in the future, as civilization advances and ethical norms change, people will look back on this with as much horror as we now look back on the widespread historical practise of human slavery.
How do you feel about the fact that you personally, for failing to see (and act on) this retrospectively obvious moral truth today, might be singled out in 100 years as an evil amoral person?
And apparently he was also a selfish and misogynistic philanderer who treated his wives and children like crap. I think the racist xenophobia may have just been part and parcel of a well-rounded world class asshole.
That quote doesn’t mean what you think it means. It’s a prohibition against Israelites worshiping other gods (hence “your towns” and “in Israel”), which, while hardly tolerant in modern terms, says nothing about Chinese in China or Japanese in Japan, or, for that matter, Aramites in Syria, Phoenicians in Phoenicia, Moabites in Moab or any of the other of the Israelites’ neighboring peoples. The law was intended to prevent Jews from losing their faith, not to impose it on non-Jews. As a rule, Jews never had a problems with foreigners worshiping other gods, so long as they left the Jews alone.
No doubt you’re right, and it was probably not constructive for me to start counter-quoting bible verses, biblical exegesis is certainly not what’s at issue here.
My point was that it’s preposterous to suggest that Einstein (in particular, as a Jew) should be held to some higher expectation than all the other ignorant people of that era based on a few cherry-picked verses from a religious text that appear to advocate tolerance.
Given that the writing was done before he gained recognition as a humanist, I would say that it is not only a reminder that the first place to fight racism is inside each of us, but that this is an example that it can be successfully fought.
I wonder if looking back on his previous views is what strengthened his resolve in helping to change those views in others.
Anyway, even if he turned out to be a rampant racist, sexist and all around bigot, physicists would still be using his work.