To quote Einstein’s own preface (part of which has just been quoted), this book’s aim is to give (My own English edition dates from 1920 which is the same edition displayed in the image above.) Relativity: The Special and the General Theory began life as a short paper and it was first published in 1916. And all that despite the fact that Einstein aimed his book at those “who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics”. Indeed there are equations and mathematical symbols on virtually every page. These philosophical questions and issues should be taken within the context of there being a large amount of mathematics and (as it were) pure physics in Einstein’s Relativity: The Special and the General Theory - far more than you’d see in most (or even all ) contemporary “popular science” books. I’ll also assume that at least a certain degree of ignorance (or naivety) - on my own part - will be displayed about the detailed physics of general relativity. The essay will also include those intuitive questions which laypersons may ask about Einstein’s theory. Such issues will be prompted by Einstein’s own words on this matter.

This essay will raise largely philosophical issues concerning Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Albert einstein general relativity