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Thu 9 Jan, 2014 06:57 am
Would you like to rewrite it in more details in plain today's English?
Context:
In The New Quotable Einstein (2005), editor Alice Calaprice suggests that two quotes attributed to Einstein which she could not find sources for, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them" and "The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them," may both be paraphrases of the 1946 quote above. A similar unsourced variant is "The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking."
In the 23 June article Einstein expanded somewhat on the original quote from the 25 May article:
Many persons have inquired concerning a recent message of mine that "a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move to higher levels."
Often in evolutionary processes a species must adapt to new conditions in order to survive. Today the atomic bomb has altered profoundly the nature of the world as we knew it, and the human race consequently finds itself in a new habitat to which it must adapt its thinking.
It's plain enough. What is the problem in your understanding?
@oristarA,
Quote:The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them,
The world has problems
we created these problems
we cannot solve these problems unless we change our thinking
the way we thought when we created the problems must change
@McTag,
McTag wrote:
Quote:The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them,
The world has problems
we created these problems
we cannot solve these problems unless we change our thinking
the way we thought when we created the problems must change
I think this kind of Einstein English is rather awkward. Do you agree, McTag?
@oristarA,
Awkward? Maybe a bit. But he's a philosopher. You might expect a bit of difficulty.
(And it's probably already been translated from German into English, before that editor got a hold of it. I don't think she helped.)
@oristarA,
The sentences you're having problems with are poorly written, and ungrammatical.
"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?" - Will Rogers
@InfraBlue,
InfraBlue wrote:
The sentences you're having problems with are poorly written, and ungrammatical.
Please be concrete. Or I'd beinclined to believe the translator who dared to translate the work of one of the greatest thinkers in human history.
@contrex,
contrex wrote:
"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?" - Will Rogers
Well, wisdom will lead you out, Contrex. But to the question of Will Rogers, the answer is to come out in All Fools Day.
@oristarA,
oristarA wrote:
InfraBlue wrote:
The sentences you're having problems with are poorly written, and ungrammatical.
Please be concrete. Or I'd beinclined to believe the translator who dared to translate the work of one of the greatest thinkers in human history.
I had to re-read the sentences. They are grammatical if awkwardly writtten.
@InfraBlue,
InfraBlue wrote:
oristarA wrote:
InfraBlue wrote:
The sentences you're having problems with are poorly written, and ungrammatical.
Please be concrete. Or I'd beinclined to believe the translator who dared to translate the work of one of the greatest thinkers in human history.
I had to re-read the sentences. They are grammatical if awkwardly writtten.
They are philosophical and hard for you.
@oristarA,
HA, no.
The sentence:
"The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them"
is awkwardly written because it refers explicitly to the world we created, but then it refers implicitly to aforementioned problems we created using the pronoun "them." It could be written more clearly.
@InfraBlue,
InfraBlue wrote:
HA, no.
The sentence:
"The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them"
is awkwardly written because it refers explicitly to the world we created, but then it refers implicitly to aforementioned problems we created using the pronoun "them." It could be written more clearly.
Well, to convince me you have to show me your clearly-written sentence.
@oristarA,
As it has been suggested, this sentence was probably translated from the German language. I'd have to know German before I'd attempt to translate it.
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