• DOI:10.1086/448970
• Corpus ID: 144484466

Einstein's Clocks: The Place of Time

@article{Galison2000EinsteinsCT,
  title={Einstein's Clocks: The Place of Time},
  author={Peter Galison},
  journal={Critical Inquiry},
  year={2000},
  volume={26},
  pages={355 - 389}
}

• P. Galison
• Published 1 January 2000
• Art
• Critical Inquiry

Einstein, 1933: "There are certain occupations, even in modern society, which entail living in isolation and do not require great physical or intellectual effort. Such occupations as the service of lighthouses and lightships come to mind."' Solitude, Einstein argued, would be perfect for the young scientist engaged with philosophical and mathematical problems. His own youth, we are tempted to speculate, might be thought of this way, the Bern patent office where he had earned a living seeming no more than a distant oceanic lightship. Consistent with this picture of otherworldliness, we have enshrined Einstein as the philosopher-scientist who, unmindful of the noise from his office work, rethought the foundations of his discipline and toppled the Newtonian absolutes of space and time.