Einstein and Freud's Pamphlet Why War?

Abstract

14 Historically Speaking · July/August 2005 Einstein and Freud's Pamphlet Why War?" Peter Paret Twenty-five years ago, the Institute for Advanced Study held a conference to mark two earlier anniversaries of the same events we are celebrating today: die founding of the Institute and Einstein's annus mirabilis. The opening talk, "Einstein's Europe," was given by Felix Gilbert. With his customary unobtrusive brilliance, Gilbert depicted Einstein as an intentional outsider, shaped by his environment, yet separating himself from it—a detachment mat he linked to Einstein's scientific independence and creativity . Gilbert began his talk by admitting that he did not understand Einstein's scientific work. But his ignorance did not trouble him. "Historians," he said, "tend to see die perspective created by distance to their theme as an advantage, not as a handicap."1 Challenging words! We know—Gilbert, of course, knew—that distance need not lead to objectivity and understanding, even if objectivity wimout a degree of emotional separation is difficult to achieve. What Gilbert may have had in mind was a combination of interest in and separation from the matter under study, which allows die interpreter to think freely, to hover over the subject , instead of being enveloped and consumed by it. Gilbert had only a layman's understanding of Einstein's theories. But he knew a great deal about Wilhelmine and Weimar society and culture—including scientific culture—and possessed the intellectual and emotional freedom to develop an informed, balanced interpretation of Einstein's environment, which enabled him to cast light on aspects of Einstein's way of thinking, even—up to a point—on his approach to science. Gilbert was too modest to say so explicitly, but by implication his praise of the distant perspective also pointed to a similarity between the scientist constructing a new view of the universe and the histo- * An earlier version of this paper was given in Frankfurt in March and in Princeton in May 2005 at meetings marking the 100th anniversary of Einstein's "miraculous year" and the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Institute for Advanced Study. I gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Mamia Lazreg, J., Lionel Gossman, and Harold Shapiro. rian—in this case Gilbert himself—interpreting the scientist's attitude and die emotional and cultural forces that drove his work forward . In his talk, GUbert did not refer to the pamphlet that is the topic of this discussion. Had he done so, he could have cited one of its passages, in which Einstein places an exceptionally high value on the scholar's or scientist 's detached view. Indeed, the entire Wanjm Krieg? (Paris, 1 933). Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. episode of Einstein's exchange with Freud on the possibility of eliminating war, may be seen as a gloss on Einstein's faith in, to use Gilbert's words, "the perspective created by distance to [the] theme." In 1932 die International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, an agency of the League of Nations, asked several prominent figures in the humanities and sciences to identify a significant issue of the day and discuss it widi someone of dieir choice, the dialogues to be published by the Institute. Among those approached was Einstein, who invited Freud to join him in exploring if and how humanity might turn away from war. After Freud agreed, Einstein outlined his views in a letter, to which Freud responded at lengdi. In March 1933 the two letters— Einstein's nearly 1100, Freud's not quite 4100 words long—appeared as a pamphlet in separate English, German, and French editions , die English version widi the title Why War?2 That two of the odier three dialogues the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation published in these mondis also addressed die problem of war is a small signal of die sense of uncertainty and anxiety then gathering across Europe.3 Why War? is often mentioned in die literature , but discussed—if at all—only briefly. And yet, the correspondence between Einstein and Freud, circumscribed tiiough it was, deserves attention as a document in die history of ideas, particularly of the long search for the place of war in human...