Einstein: His Space and Times

The commonly held view of Albert Einstein is of an eccentric genius for whom the pursuit of science was everything. But in actuality, the brilliant innovator whose Theory of Relativity forever reshaped our understanding of time was a man of his times, always politically engaged and driven by strong moral principles. An avowed pacifist, Einstein’s mistrust of authority and outspoken social and scientific views earned him death threats from Nazi sympathizers in the years preceding World War II. To him, science provided not only a means for understanding the behavior of the universe, but a foundation for considering the deeper questions of life and a way for the worldwide Jewish community to gain confidence and pride in itself. This biography presents Einstein in the context of the world he lived in, offering a fascinating portrait of a remarkable individual who remained actively engaged in international affairs throughout his life. This revealing work not only explains Einstein’s theories in understandable terms, it demonstrates how they directly emerged from the realities of his times and helped create the world we live in today. [From the Publisher]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1089/thumbnail.jp

00. Introduction

One of the most wonderful aspects of the job of university professor is that one’s occupation is based on an area of personal expertise that shapes one’s Being. So it is with Richard C. “Dick” Richards, who, amongst other areas of specialization, is a philosopher of love. Richard’s Being is one deeply entrenched in love. There is, of course, the romantic love he long shared with his recently passed wife Marty, but there is also the love of many, many students and colleagues, both in and beyond the department at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, and undeniably his love for poetry, humor, and the philosophy to which he dedicated so many years. Most of all, though, is (as cliché as this sounds), his love of life. Few people so embody the virtues they discuss, living so vitally and thereby affecting the lives of so many who come in contact with them, even briefly, that this love is shared by so many. This volume is intended as a testament to that love given and now redirected back toward Richard C. Richards. [excerpt

06. Richard Richards, Robert Roberts, and Aristotelian Aristotelianism

This paper is a tribute to a philosopher and a person I have long admired, Richard C. Richards. As a clear and rigorous thinker, a thoughtful and accessible writer, and as a kind, blunt, and extremely funny person, Richard embodies virtues I hope to someday claim as well. [excerpt

Invariance: A Tale of Intellectual Migration

The plotline of the standard story told about the development of intellectual history at the end of the 19th/turn of the 20th century follows the move from absolutism to perspectivalism. The narrative takes us, on the one hand, from the scientism of late Enlightenment writers like Voltaire, Mill, D’Alebert, and Comte and the historical determinism of Hegel, all of which were based upon a universal picture of rationality, to, on the other hand, the relativistic physics of Einstein, the perspectival art of Picasso, and the individualism of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard leading to the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger to and on through the deconstructivist work of Derrida in which universal proclamations were deemed meaningless. In their place, was relative dependent upon subjective, political, and social factors, influences, and interpretations. Like all sketches, of course, the story is more complicated than that. There is another trend in the intellectual air of the early 20th century that gets left out of this oversimplified picture, one that threads a middle path between absolutism and perspectivalism, a path that considers both frame-dependent or covariant truths and frame-independent or invariant truths and examines the relations between them. Indeed, the notions of covariance and invariance play important roles in the development of the fields of mathematics, physics, philosophy, and psychology in the decades after the turn of the 20th century. The migration of the concepts of invariance and covariance illustrates not only the interconnectedness of the working communities of intellectuals, but also displays ways in which the personal, social, and political overlaps between groups of disciplinary thinkers are essential conduits for the conceptual cross-fertilization that aids in the health of our modern fields of study. [excerpt

April Fools’ Day, A Celebration of All Things Creative

April Fools\u27 Day is unique among our holidays because it is the only one for which ingenuity is required. Other festivals are celebrated with expectations of prepackaged icons. Try serving something other than turkey for Thanksgiving and you are likely to face a revolt. Holidays are bastions of repetition, but April Fools\u27 Day is a commemoration of creativity. [excerpt

Evolution and the Second Law of Thermodynamics: Effectively Communicating to Non-Technicians

Given the degree of disbelief in the theory of evolution by the wider public, scientists need to develop a collection of clear explanations and metaphors that demonstrate the working of the theory and the flaws in antievolutionist arguments. This paper presents tools of this sort for countering the anti-evolutionist claim that evolutionary mechanisms are inconsistent with the second law of thermodynamics. Images are provided to replace the traditional misunderstanding of the law, i.e., “everything always gets more disordered over time,” with a more clear sense of the way in which entropy tends to increase allowing a thermally isolated system access to a greater number of microstates. Accessible explanations are also provided for the ways in which individual organisms are able to minimize entropy and the advantages this conveys

Sylvester: Ushering in the Modern Era of Research on Odd Perfect Numbers

In 1888, James Joseph Sylvester (1814-1897) published a series of papers that he hoped would pave the way for a general proof of the nonexistence of an odd perfect number (OPN). Seemingly unaware that more than fifty years earlier Benjamin Peirce had proved that an odd perfect number must have at least four distinct prime divisors, Sylvester began his fundamental assault on the problem by establishing the same result. Later that same year, he strengthened his conclusion to five. These findings would help to mark the beginning of the modern era of research on odd perfect numbers. Sylvester\u27s bound stood as the best demonstrated until Gradstein improved it by one in 1925. Today, we know that the number of distinct prime divisors that an odd perfect number can have is at least eight. This was demonstrated by Chein in 1979 in his doctoral thesis. However, he published nothing of it. A complete proof consisting of almost 200 manuscript pages was given independently by Hagis. An outline of it appeared in 1980. What motivated Sylvester\u27s sudden interest in odd perfect numbers? Moreover, we also ask what prompted this mathematician who was primarily noted for his work in algebra to periodically direct his attention to famous unsolved problems in number theory? The objective of this paper is to formulate a response to these questions, as well as to substantiate the assertion that much of the modern work done on the subject of odd perfect numbers has as it roots, the series of papers produced by Sylvester in 1888

An Ernie Banks Season

The dawn of the baseball season is an existential moment. For big market teams with owners willing to pay for marquee players, and general managers who build playoff-bound teams, it is a time of great anticipation. It\u27s also a time of hope, albeit dim, for those die-hard fans of teams who are off the playoff pace by double digits year in and year out. Their cautious optimism is one that illuminates the human condition. [excerpt

Can Corporations Be Morally Responsible? Aristotle, Stakeholders and the Non-Sale of Hershey

Stakeholder theory is a significant development in the drive to provide a foundation for intuitions concerning the moral responsibility connected to corporate decision making. The move to include the interests of workers, consumers, the communities and biological environment in which the corporations instantiations are located run counter to the view in which stakeholders\u27 interests are paramount. The non-sale of the Hershey Foods company to Wrigley was the ultimate result of a massive call by stakeholders to put other interests before stakeholder financial stakes, yet the discussion was notably not held in terms of stakeholder theory. Rather, the discussion was explicitly Aristotelian with opponents of the view arguing that the sale was improper because it ran counter to the essence or telos of the organization. This case is no doubt unusual in that the founding documents of the organization were appealed in order to justify the claim that the essence of the corporation was to do more than enrich the shareholders. This paper intends to examine whether, in spite of this anomaly, the Hershey case has anything general to say about the foundations of corporate responsibility

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

Richard C. “Dick” Richards has a 40 year history of being an influential philosopher, teacher, and colleague. This volume collects thoughts, memories, and philosophical essays that engage with and celebrate the life and career of this much beloved figure