Einstein on Kant: Synthetic A Priori Concepts

Here is an excerpt containing Einstein’s thoughts on Kant’s synthetic a priori concepts. Found after reading a comment on another blog claiming Einstein called A Critique of Pure Reason “the most influential book he ever read”. Turns out Einstein actually wrote a little bit about Kant’s a priori distinction. Not entirely sure what Einstein thinks of the rest of transcendental idealism, as it would seem to me at least that if you were to disagree with Kant’s distinctions on analytic/synthetic a priori/ a posteriori concepts then it makes it slightly difficult moving forward.

“Until some time ago, it could be regarded as possible that Kant’s system of a priori concepts and norms really could withstand the test of time. This was defensible as long as the content of later science held to be confirmed) did not violate those norms. This case occurred indisputably only with the theory of relativity. However, if one does not want to assert that relativity theory goes against reason, one cannot retain the a priori concepts and norms of Kant’s system.

For starters, this does not exclude, at least, the retention of Kant’s way of posing the problem, as Cassirer, for instance, does. I am even of the opinion that this standpoint cannot be strictly refuted by any scientific development. For, one will always be able to say that critical philosophers had hitherto erred in setting up the a priori elements and one will always be able to set up a system of a priori elements that does not conflict with a given physical system. I surely may briefly indicate why I do not find this standpoint natural. Let a physical theory consist of the parts (elements) A, B, C, D, which together form a logical whole that correctly connects the pertinent experiments (sensory experiences). Then the tendency is that less than all four elements, e.g., A, B, D, still say nothing about the experiences, without C; no more so A, B, C, without D. One is then free to regard three of these elements, e.g., A, B, C, as a priori and only D as empirically determined. What always remains unsatisfactory in this is the arbitrariness of the choice of elements to be designated as a priori, even disregarding that the theory could be replaced at some point by another theory that substitutes some of these elements (or all four of them) with others. One could be of the view, though, that through direct analysis of human reason, or thought, we would be in a position to recognize elements that would have to be present in any theory. But most researchers would probably agree that we lack a method for recognizing such elements, even if one were inclined to believe in their existence. Or should one imagine that the search for a priori elements was a kind of asymptotic process that advances along with the development of science?”

Albert Einstein, “Elsbach’s Buch: Kant und Einstein,” Deutsche Literaturzeitung, 1 (1924): cols. 1685–169. Doc. 321 in Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: Volume 14: The Berlin Years: Writings & Correspondence, April 1923-May 1925. Ed.  Diana Kormos Buchwald et al., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015. Translation from English Translation Supplement. pp. 324-25.

 

Source can be found here.