On Sat, 9 Feb 2002 19:14:40 -0000 P.J.Wells at open.ac.uk writes:
>
> On a slightly different note, is it really true, as Jim suggests,
> that
>
> >much of the Soviet physicists' defense of relativity
> >consisted of their pointing out the degree to which Engels
> >had in fact anticipated the insights of Mach and of Einstein.
>
> Given the pasting which Lenin gave Mach in "Materialism and
> Empirio-Criticism" I should have thought this line was best avoided
> in the
> Stalin era.
Well, the Soviet physicists usually mentioned just Einstein, and avoided referring to Mach. Of course anyone familiar with the history of physical thought, would have realized that the young Einstein was profoundly influenced by Mach. So to say that Engels had anticipated many of Einstein's insights would imply that he probably had also anticipated some of Mach's, but they usually kept quiet about that.
Jim F.
>
> Julian
>
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