IMG48

Ernst Mach

thc mcrging of thc Bol$hevik and Mcnshcvik fractions I was finally removed from thc central committcc of thc party itsclf.”

The 1917 Octobcr Rcvolution found posts for many socialist “cx-” Machians. Bnzarov becamc an cconomist and State planning cxpert, Lunacharsky a minister of cducation, and Bogdanov foundcd and dircctcd thc Moscow Insdtutc of Blood Transfusion, hut Lenin rc-maincd distrustful.^r,:! Robert Paync in his The Life and Dcath of Lenin (1964) has written as follows:

When he [Lenin] came to power it [Materialism and Empirio-Criticism] was reprinted in Moscow with an introduction in which oncc morc he bitterly assailed Alc\andcr Bogdanów This linie Bogdanov was not accuscd of misinterpreting philosophy so much as bcing one of thc leaders of thc Prolctcult movcincnt, cclchrating a purcly prolctarian culturc. Under Mayer-hold thc Prolctcult theater bccamc one of thc major glories of thc rcvolu-tion, hut Lenin was suspicious of thc inovcmcnt and did cvcrything pos-siblc to thwart it.⁵⁴

Louis Fischer in his own book on Lenin continucs: “He objectcd . . . to an independent cultural organizadon outsidc thc party and eon-sidered the qucst for autonomy an effort to elude party eon troi . . . Lunacharsky and Bukharin continucd to resist Lenin and assist thc Prolctcult as latc as September 27, 1922. . .    ⁰⁵

The abolition of the movcmcnt in 1923 discouragcd Bogdanov into wriung thc following pessimistie statement: "In the old days one callcd mc ‘Machist*. . . . But now I obscrve with sadsfacrion that I am no longcr so designated, bccausc sińce then, a morc accuratc term of abusc has becn found: 'BogdanovismV’⁰⁶ In 1928 Bogda no v conductcd a incdical cxpcriment on himsclf and died. According to rumor it was suicidc.⁵⁷

Mach and Einstein

i

This and ihc ncxt chapter dcal with thc Mach-Einstcin rcladonship, the focus in this chapter being on Einstein and in thc ncxt on Mach. I start with a limitcd-information analysis to suggcst Einstcin’s under-standing of thc relationship, and thcn in the ncxt chapter, while trying to settlc or at Icast clarify a lingcring disputc among scholars, go ovcr the same period again with information availablc to Mach but incom-pktcly known, jf at all, to thc younger physicist.

ii

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in Ulm, livcd tlicrc scvcral months, and spent thc next fourteen years in Munich where he attended grade school and from 1890 to 1894 thc Luitpold Gymnasium. Wc do not know if Machs science tcxtbooks werc uscd in his ciasses, but Mach’s iiamc and that of Boltzmnnn, who was then teaching physics in Munich, were ccrtainly familiar to his science tcachcrs and werc probably at least occasionally referred to in classroom discoursc.

Einstein’s interest in science was stimulated by his rcading of Ludwig Buchncrs Force and Matter, a popular approach to science from a believer in matter monism.¹ The book was first published in 1855, be camc extremcly controvcrsial, and continucd 10 be reprinted until thc end of thc century.² “Professional philosophers” rej cc te d it as “crude" and "nawę," and Marxists scorned it as “metaphysicar‘ (bccausc Buchner would not incorporate "thc dialcctic" and other Hcgclisms),

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