Einstein, Stoic?

Here’s a pretty serious argument for why Albert Einstein was a Stoic

Einstein sticking his tongue out, from https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/albert-einstein-tongue-1951/, original photo credit by Arthur Sasse.

I’ve been into Einstein, of late. Some time ago I published an essay on his epistemology, which I think is perfectly sensible and ought to be taken seriously by both scientists and philosophers, not to mention everyone else. I then read (and briefly reviewed) the very good biography by Walter Isaacson. (Also check out Isaacson’s biography of Benjamin Franklin, as well as an essay I wrote about his crucial contribution to the Declaration of Independence.)

While enjoying Isaacson’s book, I was reminded of a short essay Einstein wrote in 1930, entitled “What I believe,” published in the collection Living Philosophies and available in the public domain. Let’s take a look and see the extent to which Einstein, I think, was a Stoic, even though as far as I know he never mentioned Stoic philosophy explicitly. (He did read and mention Baruch Spinoza, who was in turn heavily influenced by the Stoics.)

“Man is here for the sake of other men — above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I…