"Albert Einstein. The world as I see it (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автораwas enough for a man to have freed himself to some extent from personal
egotism to make him a valuable member of society, to-day he must also be required to overcome national and class egotism. Only if he reaches those heights can he contribute towards improving the lot of humanity. As regards this most important need of the age the inhabitants of a small State are better placed than those of a great Power, since the latter are exposed, both in politics and economics, to the temptation to gain their ends by brute force. The agreement between Holland and Belgium, which is the only bright spot in European affairs during the last few years, encourages one to hope that the small nations will play a leading part in the attempt to liberate the world from the degrading yoke of militarism through the renunciation of the individual country's unlimited right of self-determination. III Germany 1933 Manifesto As long as I have any choice, I will only stay in a country where political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule. Political liberty implies liberty to express one's political individual opinion. These conditions do not obtain in Germany at the present time. Those who have done most for the cause of international understanding, among them some of the leading artists, are being persecuted there. Any social organism can become psychically distempered just as any individual can, especially in times of difficulty. Nations usually survive these distempers. I hope that healthy conditions will soon supervene in Germany, and that in future her great men like Kant and Goethe will not merely be commemorated from time to time, but that the principles which they inculcated will also prevail in public life and in the general consciousness. March, 1933. Correspondence with the Prussian Academy of Sciences The following correspondence is here published for the first time in its authentic and complete form. The version published in German newspapers was for the most part incorrect, important sentences being omitted. The Academy's declaration of April I, 1933, against Einstein. |
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