Einstein 5-8

      The concept of the advantages of youthful thinking strike me the most in these chapters.  An obvious dichotomy in the life of Albert Einstein is between his youthful stubbornness to accept conventional schools on thought and his veteran stubbornness to concede the pursuit for a unified theory.  Isaacson quotes, "He had the brashness needed to scrub away the layers of conventional wisdom that were obscuring the cracks in the foundation of physics, and his visual imagination allowed him to make conceptual leaps that eluded more traditional thinkers" (93).  As we spoke of in class, it is Einstein's passion and creative skepticism that allowed him to make great contributions to the filed of physics.  However, as we will later see, this creative imagination lends itself to a specific, unmoving idea later on in Einstein's life.  It is at that point where the scientific virtues are blurred.
      ANother interesting concept that arises from any discussion of quantum theory is the impact on the scientific telos.  As defined in class, the scientific telos is to add knowledge about the world to the existing group of facts through testable methods.  But does a theory that works in probabilities rather than causalities fit into this? Although Einstein struggled with the non-deterministic consequences of quantum theory, there seems to be no true reason to deny the theory outright (unless on the grounds of religious devotion).  While such a theory complicates knowledge about the world, it still allows for further discussion and experimentation in the field of physics.  The scientific telos can still be achieved.