Albert Einstein and David Hume

Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity was inspired by Scottish philosopher, Sarah Knapton The Telegraph, via MSN

"In Einstein’s letter, written to Moritz Schlick, Professor of Physics at Vienna, in December 1915 he admits that it was Hume’s work which inspired general relativity. “You have correctly seen that this line of thought was of great influence on my efforts and indeed Ernst Mach and still much more Hume, whose treatise on understanding I studied with eagerness and admiration shortly before finding relativity theory.” He goes on to write that “It is very possible that without these philosophical studies I can not say that the solution would have come.”


A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume (1739) - complete pdf file


SECT. I. OF THE INFINITE DIVISIBILITY OF OUR IDEAS OF SPACE AND TIME.

SECT. II. OF THE INFINITE DIVISIBILITY OF SPACE AND TIME

SECT. III. OF THE OTHER QUALITIES OF OUR IDEA OF SPACE AND TIME.

Time for a new, revised edition of Arthur Herman's How the Scots invented the Modern World (2001)?