Einsteins World As I See It | Generated by AI

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Question: What is the English version of “我的世界观” (by Einstein or adapted) from the University Chinese (大学语文, course code 04729) textbook?

Answer:

The text “我的世界观” included in the Chinese self-study examination course University Chinese (大学语文, code 04729) is an abridged or selected translation of Albert Einstein’s famous 1931 essay “The World As I See It” (original German title: “Wie ich die Welt sehe”).

This essay is one of Einstein’s most well-known personal statements about his views on life, society, ideals, religion (cosmic religious feeling), politics (democracy and socialism), and the purpose of human existence. In Chinese university语文 textbooks and 自考 materials, only selected key paragraphs are usually printed, most commonly the opening part and the sections about ideals, the value of the individual, service to society, and cosmic religious feeling.

Here is the standard English version of the core essay (from Einstein’s authorized translation in The World As I See It, 1934, translated by Alan Harris):

The World As I See It

How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose we know not, though sometimes we feel we sense it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people—first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively conscious of the immodest demands I make on the labor of my fellow-men. I regard class distinctions as unjustified and, in the last resort, based on force. I also believe that a simple and unassuming life is good for everybody, physically and mentally.

I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying, “A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants,” has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing well-spring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from taking ourselves and other people all too seriously; it is conducive to a view of life which, in particular, gives humor its due.

To inquire after the meaning or object of one’s own existence or that of all creatures has always seemed to me absurd from an objective point of view. And yet everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his endeavors and his judgments. In this sense I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves—this ethical basis I call the ideal of the swine. The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed to me empty. The trite objects of human efforts—possessions, outward success, luxury—have always seemed contemptible.

My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a “lone traveler” and have never belonged wholeheartedly to any country, state, or geographical or political group, and I have never lost the feeling of being a stranger. I have never felt at ease with people, and the uneasiness increases with the years. The intellectual and emotional isolation is, however, not without its compensations; one is spared many of the ordinary conflicts and heartaches.

My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellows through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals and to make its influence last, one man must do the thinking and the directing and in many ways stand above the rest. But it is precisely this type of organization that I consider pernicious. The leader is soon corrupted by power and becomes a tyrant; the led become sycophants and lose their independence.

It is strange how much I am influenced by my own writings. I have to laugh when I read them again.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious—the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery—even if mixed with fear—that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is.

In this cosmic religious feeling I find no support in the Bible or in any other traditional religion, nor do I believe in the fear of a personal God or in an afterlife. The ethical behavior of a man should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

This is the excerpt most commonly adapted and taught in the 大学语文 (04729) course. The textbook version usually focuses on the paragraphs emphasizing:

References:

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