isbn-13: 9781611453423
Audible
For many years I lived just north-west of Princeton and my daily route to the Princeton Junction train station would take me past 112 Mercer Street, the house where Einstein lived. In fact, I specifically chose that particular routing so that I would drive by Einstein’s house.
The premise of this book is that after World War II Albert Einstein would invite philosopher and (sometime) pacifist, Bertrand Russell, quantum physicist, Wolfgang Pauli and the brilliant logician, Kurt Gödel to his house to discuss science and philosophy. I bought the book under the impression that it would uncover the secrets of what these great men discussed but the reality is that there’s is very little known about these meetings, if indeed the four were ever actually there at the same time. The only written record of these meetings comes from a passing remark in Russell’s Autobiography. Gödel claims to have only ever had one discussion with Russell.
Still it’s a useful hook from which to hang biographies of each man as well as many of their contemporaries (especially Heisenberg and Oppenheimer) and the scientific milieu that each was a part of. It does bounce around a bit from topic to topic, and is not a substitute for a proper biography of each man.
Publisher’s Description: “From the acclaimed author of The Nobel Prize comes this fascinating portrait of four of the greatest minds in the history of science and the impossible turning point they faced.”