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Yes, he did reject it, completely. In his own words: ---- "We have become Antipodean in our scientific expectations. You believe in the God who plays dice, and I in complete law and order in a world which objectively exists, and which I, in a wildly speculative way, am trying to capture. I firmly BELIEVE [emphasis original], but I hope that someone will discover a more realistic way, or rather a more tangible basis than it has been my lot to find. Even the great initial success of the quantum theory does not make me believe in the fundamental dice-game, although I am well aware that our younger colleagues interpret this as a consequence of senility. No doubt the day will come when we will see whose instinctive attitude was the correct one." Einstein, 1944 ---- He rejected it based on his instincts. He felt it was wrong. Einstein in general poses a major problem to many of those of a certain mindset of what drives success in science and academia, because he was arguably the greatest scientist to have ever lived, yet he was no less possessed of the demons of bias, prejudice, and 'feels' than anyone else - if anything he seems to have suffered them perhaps even more greatly than average. As you can see in his own words, not only did he reject it - but he actively mocked the entire idea, repeatedly. There's no nuance to be had there. The only issue is that Einstein's behavior, character, and even history largely contradicts the idealized view of science and scientists that many like to try to imagine, or push, now a days. It also again largely contradicts the ideal that science, in and of itself, is what drove such rapid progress. I think the truth is that we don't know what drove such rapid progress, but we can use people like Einstein (and many other great scientists it turns out...) to falsify most hypotheses. |