(Robert Lang) wrote in message ...
On 24 May 2004 11:28:43 -0700, (Patrick Reany) wrote:
some stuff

"The second selection, 'Ether and Motion', is taken from a book
entitled The Evolution of Physics, which was actually written by the
Polish physicist Leopold Infeld. Although his own contribution was
negligible, Einstein agreed to lend his name in order to promote the
book and to assist Infeld's efforts to remain in the United States."

- The World of Physics, by Jefferson Hane Weaver

In other words, you claim that Einstein purposely misrepresented (lied
about) his authorship to his readership? I say not. I say that The
Evolution of Physics (published in 1938) is Einstein's own
amplification of his 1936 essay "Physics and Reality" found in Ideas
and Opinions, following the general pattern of progression of the 1936
essay, and intended for a lay audience. The idea for the book was
Infeld's (possibly inspired after he read Einstein's essay "Physics
and Reality"); but the chief author was Einstein himself. It was
Infeld's contributions that were much lesser.

My other evidence is given in

http://www.ajnpx.com/html/Einstein-I...on-Genius.html

Physical concepts are free creations of the
human mind, and are not, however it may
seem, uniquely determined by the external
world.
--- The Evolution of Physics, Einstein
& Infeld, Touchstone, 1938, p31.

I believe that the first step in the setting of a "real
external world" is the formation of the concept of
bodily objects and of bodily objects of various
kinds. Out of the multitude of our sense impressions
we take, mentally and arbitrarily, certain repeatedly
occurring complexes of sense impressions (partly in
conjunction with sense impressions which are
interpreted as signs for sense experiences of others),
and we correlate to them a concept---the concept
of the bodily object. Considered logically this
concept is not identical with the totality of sense
impressions referred to; but it is a free creation of
the human (or animal) mind. On the other hand,
this concept owes its meaning and its justification
exclusively to the totality of the sense impressions
which we associate with it.
--- Found in: Physics and Reality, A. Einstein,
Ideas and Opinions, Three Rivers Press, p291.

Sections from Physics and Reality

I. General considerations concerning the method of
science
II. Mechanics and the attempts to base all physics on it
III. The Field Concept
IV. The Theory of Relativity
V. Quantum theory and the fundamentals of physics
VI. Relativity theory and corpuscules

Chapters from The Evolution of Physics

1. The rise of the mechanical view
2. The decline of the mechanical view
3. Field, Relativity
4. Quanta

And we come full circle because the last section of chapter 4 is
called 'Physics and Reality'.

All anyone can do, objectively and fairly, is to look at all the
evidence and make a decision one way or the other. Just remember this:
It is very easy to take any book at all with multiple authors and
claim that the first author made no contribution to the work. Talk is
cheap. People love to attack Einstein. This claim against him is just
one of those ways that people attack him. To take away from any
putative author the intellectual property that is his or her due is an
extraordinary act which requires an extraordinary proof to justify it.
Rumor isn't enough.

Einstein would have been VERY motivated to write The Evolution of
Physics because of his passion to get accross to his readers the place
that his own work in relativity and quantum theory played in the
foundations to physics from the perpsective of the history of ideas
that work in physical theories.

Patrick