It's Not All Relative

“The Einsteinian Universe? – A Dialectical Perspective of Modern Theoretical Physics and Cosmology,” by Abdul Malek, 2015

This book is a philosophical attack on present mathematical idealism by a supporter of dialectical materialism.  This is a third in a series by Malek in which he exposes modern cosmology as an idealist hoax unsupported by almost any evidence.  In a way, it has taken the place of failing religions. Einstein came up with his theory based on math, not observation or empirical research.  It led to, among other things, the unprovable assertion of the Big Bang.  To this day, observational cosmology flies a distant second to math, which seems an odd position for a ‘science’ to be in.    

Of interest are several points Malek makes: 

One is that space and time do not exist as physical matter or ‘things.’  They are only the environment in which matter/energy in motion operate.  Einstein’s “Space-Time” is a geometric concept that in practice dispenses with matter and motion and makes space and time 'things.'

Two is that quantum electro-dynamics is dialectical, has been proved right and was opposed by Einstein. 

Three is that no unified field theory has ever been found, nor will it, because the essence of reality is change.  

Four is that Eddington’s 1919 false confirmation of Einstein’s theory is the equivalent of the Tonkin Gulf incident.  No one reads the corrections on page 8 after the parade has started. 

Five is Malek’s focus on ‘causality’ as an undialectical view, which does not understand that everything evolves within itself and in contradiction to others.  Process and flux are the nature of matter in motion.

Six is the constant false resort to dualisms – wave or particle?  Many or one?  Being or nothingness?  The infinite or the finite? – instead of seeing them as unified.  

Seven is Kant’s 1755 philosophic discovery that the universe evolves – it is not a static creation.  Kant’s insight of cosmic evolution was ignored by scientists for years, as they saw (and still see) no connection between philosophy and science.  (Silos are truly useful.)  The sad truth is that everyone has a philosophy whether they know it or not.  Most scientists absorb the philosophy of the rulers of the society they live in.

Malek digs up three new quotes from Einstein showing his idealist bent.  Other quotes are in earlier reviews on this blog.  (Idealism again is not related to wanting some ideal solution – idealism in the philosophic sense means that ideas rule over empirical methods and matter.)

1.     “The natural philosophers of those days were on the contrary most of them possessed with the idea that fundamental concepts and postulates of physics were not in the logical sense free inventions of the human mind but could be deduced from experience by abstraction – that is to say by logical means.  A clear recognition of the erroneousness of this notion really came with the general theory of relativity.”  Einstein, 1933. 

2.     “Many physicists maintain – and there are weighty arguments in their favour – that in the face of these facts (quantum mechanical), not merely the differential law, but the law of causation itself – hitherto the ultimate basic postulate of all natural science – has collapsed.” Einstein, 1934.

3.     “How can it be that mathematics being a product of human thought which is independent from experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?” (As you might understand, the number 10 is actually a product of our own hands and toes.  Mathematics is based on making physical reality into numbers, shapes and concepts - it is not independent.)

Welcome to Pandora

If you wonder why cosmologists prattle on without evidence about time travel, multi-dimensional and multiple universes, hyper-space, dark matter, string theory, god particles and ‘theories of everything,’ join the club.  Engels, Marx and Lenin were part of a tradition that goes back to Heraclitus, Democritus, Leucippus, Epicurus, Lucretius, Kant and Hegel, who understood that material reality, empirical work, evolution or dialectics could understand the universe, society and nature.  Malek knows that modern capitalism sees the theory of relativity as useful and hence back it up in myriad ways… with money, grants, professorships, publication, telescope time, jobs and acclaim.

CERN's Large Hadron Collider, partly inspired by Einstein's theories, has cost $9 billion as of 2010 and now a larger one (the future Circular Collider) is planned to cost $22 billion - that is before massive cost overruns. The building of a the new mega collider indicates that the first one did not really prove useful.  We might compare these colliders to the building of the pyramids by modern pharaohs – monuments to their glory.  They are the largest scientific projects ever built.

One of the last predictions made by Einstein was that his whole theory might be a ‘castle in the air.’ Physicist Freeman Dyson said that “The ground of physics is littered with the corpses of unified theories.”  Malek agrees and thinks this will be Einstein’s epitaph if actual science returns in the field of cosmology.

P.S. - Sabine Hossenfelder disses the Mega Collider project in 9/2024 as a bad idea. Mega Collider - Bad Idea

Other reviews on this topic below, use blog search box, upper left:  “The Philosophy of Space-Time” and “The Dialectical Universe – Some Reflections on Cosmology” (both by Malek) “The Big Bang Never Happened,” “Seeing Red,” “Reason in Revolt,” “Big Bang Goes Boom!,” “The Big Bang Theory is a Situation Comedy,” “Ten Assumptions of Science,”  “Marx and the Earth.”

And I bought it at May Day’s excellent cut-out / used section!

Red Frog  / December 13, 2019