biohistoriography - the genealogy of embodied epistemology

(www.geocities.com/biohistoriography)

                                         DESCARTES-NEWTON-EINSTEIN
                                 A GENEALOGY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
   
                                                          Jed Gallagher

                               <He [Newton] was by no means eccentric, but
                                 he was as apt to be remiss in his social duties as
                                 negligent of his own comforts. That he some-
                                 times sat in bed forgetting to dress himself
                                 through absorption in some problem merely
                                 proves him as human as the rest of us; not as
                                 human, indeed, as Descartes who, at one period
                                 of his life, spent most of his time in bed.>

                                                                                   Brodetsky (1927)

                               <Einstein has reported that his profound
                                 generalization connecting space and time
                                 occurred to him while he was sick in bed.
                                 Descartes is said to have made his discoveries
                                 while laying in bed in the morning.>

                                                                                    Koestler (1975)

Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955) need no introduction here; historically, they are quite simply the most important natural philosophers ever to have lived. I have decided to use the older term “natural philosophers” to describe them, rather than our contemporary term “scientists”,  for two important reasons. Firstly, Descartes and Newton were actually practising natural philosophers before the invention of the 19th century term “scientist”.  And Einsteins preferred term for his practice was philosopher-scientist. Secondly, although they each explicated their physics, astronomy and cosmology using mathematics, their science is fundementally an explication of their individual philosophy of nature. Each of them thought up a universe (Cartesian, Newtonian, Einsteinian), with a system of philosophical boundaries, within which each of their followers went on to practice science as scientists (as we understand this role today) but not natural philosophers; the natural philosophy was a “given” from their seminal teachers.

Why use the term “genealogy” to describe their historical relationship? Again, for two important reasons. Firstly, their natural philosophy has an historical lineage on many levels. Most obviously, and of necessity, they follow each other in chronological order. They are the three “giants” of physics; they punctuate the development of Modern physics over their lifetimes. The natural philosophy of each is both a descendant and ancestor of the others. The Cartesian and Newtonian universes are older systems of the Einsteinian universe. Each philosophy is a different generation of the same family where each generation forms a chronological “break”. The baton of natural philosophy is passed on down the generations of the same family. Newton studied and absorbed the “genes” of his ancestor, Descartes; Einstein studied and absorbed the “genes” of his ancestor, Newton.   

Secondly (and the thesis of this paper), they form a genealogy because they each shared the same disease, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), and it is this historical fact that actually made the genealogical relationship, and the development of Modern physics itself, possible (see biohistoriography index: What is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis?). The extent and quality of the evidence from primary sources is easily sufficient to give a definitive diagnosis of ME in all three cases. This thesis is not an “interesting speculation” which can never be proved either way. Nor is the diagnosis of ME just one of a number of “possible” diseases; the evidence excludes all other diagnoses (see Appendix 1: Diagnostic criteria for ME attributable to Descartes, Newton and Einstein). In a previous paper, I presented overwhelming evidence that Descartes was a near life-long ME sufferer and that the existence of the foundation of Modern philosophy, the Cartesian soul, is only explainable from the existence of ME (see biohistoriography essay index). In this paper, I want to present overwhelming evidence that Newton and Einstein belong to the same “family” as Descartes: the rare family of male ME sufferers. That, like Descartes, ME is the only possible explanation for their behaviour and way of living. And that, like Descartes, ME was the creative basis for their natural philosophy. I will then go on to discuss some of the many fascinating aspects of the genealogy and its relationship to the development of Modern physics. 

What should be apparent even now, however, is the enormous importance of the implications of this thesis for the history of physics. And, for the enormous academic and popular interest that surrounds the lives of all three as individuals. No biography has yet been published which correctly interprets each of their lives. Their undiagnosed ME meant that all of their behaviour, lifestyle and decisions were unconsciuosly determined by their ME pathophysiology. It is not possible to write a book length treatment of each of their lives within the context of their ME here (I will leave this to others more qualified than me) but I have outlined the key points of their behaviour, major events and turning points (as I did with Descartes). However, every aspect of their lives, can be shown to be overshadowed by their ME. 

I do not intend to go over the same evidence again here for Descartes ME but there are two extremely important points to understand about how ME explains the behaviour, life-style and thought of all three natural philosophers. Firstly, the evidence demonstrates that all three acquired their ME as young boys, probably around five or six years old but certainly before the age of ten. So, they were all near life-long, undiagnosed, sufferers of ME. This means that none of them were aware that they were suffering, specifically, from the symptoms of ME; although the evidence shows that they were all vaguely aware that their general health was poor, that they exhibited many symptoms of ill-health, but they did not think they were experiencing a specific disease. They all vaguely understood that they were the victims of what could best be described as a weak constitution; and, that they must have been born this way. This is the classic clinical picture for childhood ME patients. They were all three too young to have the cognitive ability to understand the enormous change in their health when they contracted ME. Although their ME behaviours were noticed by those around them as children (and for the rest of their lives), they were too young for the actual point of change to be noticed. If all three had contracted ME at a later age then they would have been all too well aware of an enormous change in their health; that something abnormal had occurred. So, they just got on with their lives as best they could with ME, and this is recorded in the historical documents.

Secondly, it is extremely important to understand that, although Descartes was a moderate case of ME, Newton and Einstein were both mild cases in the first half of their lives (then became moderate cases like Descartes). This does not mean that they were not struggling with the effects of a very debilitating disorder any less than Descartes, but they were able to compensate and cope to a much greater extent. Newton and Einstein were initially able to present a more normal health picture on the surface and produce a greater quantity of “work” than Descartes. Descartes was also in the different situation of never having the domestic and financial support of academic institutions  around him. But, as we will see, the similarities between the behaviour and life-styles of all three is marked. Descartes ME is consequently more visible; where as Newton and Einstein require a little deeper excavation for facts and a more sensitive approach to interpretation.  This does not mean that there is any counter-evidence against Newtons or Einsteins ME;  just the need for a more careful approach in the exposure of the evidence in the strata of their lives. 

Suprisingly, the behavioural and life-style similarities between Newton and Einstein have attracted very little investigation. Ironically, it was Einstein himself who wrote numerous papers on Newtons work and was fascinated by his life; but completely unaware of the irony of their shared disease. He even wrote the forward to Villamils Newton: the man in 1936. However, there is a startling book, entitled Einstein and Newton (published only in the USA and Canada in 1973) which recognised that the unique similarity of their lives was problematic (Lerner 1973). The book is in two parts, “Development and Work” and “Life Patterns” (with a key chapter on “Health”), and, although a superficial treatment with incorrect interpretations, serves as a general introduction to the intentions of this paper. Indeed, Lerner fully appreciates the “problem” in his preface: “In spite of the obvious differences between Newton and Einstein, I have always wondered if their great achievements were not, of necessity, based on important similarities in their personal traits and in their lives”. In this paper, Lerners “of necessity” is ME.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Anyone reading the preface to Westfalls voluminous biography of Newton can not fail to be shocked by his ultimate tone of defeat in the face of the brick wall that is Newton:

“The more I have studied him, the more Newton has receded from me….The end result of my study of Newton has served to convince me that with him there is no measure. He has become for me wholly other, one of the tiny handful of supreme geniuses who have shaped the categories of the human intellect, a man not finally reducible to the criteria by which we comprehend our fellow human beings.” (Westfall 1980)

Then there is Manuels similar admission in the introduction to his famous Freudian interpretation of Newtons life:

“The innermost secrets of Isaac Newton have not been uncovered. Though the curtain may be raised briefly, one goes away burdened with doubt about what has actually been seen in that fleeting moment.” (Manuel 1980)

Even John Conduitt, one of Newtons friends in later life, found himself completely puzzled by Newton:

“When we consider his talents, his virtues, even we that knew him can hardly think of him without a sort of superstition, which demands all our reason to check - nor forbear saying, with the Marquis de L’hospital, was Newton a man? (Jones 1991: K.Ms.130.17)   

This is no slight on Westfall, Manuel or Conduitt: it is admirable honesty. It is absolutely impossible to interpret  Newtons life and thought outside the context of his ME. In my study of Newtons life, I will be quoting from the primary sources of his own notebooks and recorded words. Historically,  the two key biographical primary sources are William Stukeleys (1687-1765) memoirs and John Conduitts (1688-1737) unpublished biographical notes in the Keynes collection of Kings College library at Cambridge University (Hastings-White 1936; Jones 1991). The two key secondary biographies are Westfall (1980) and Manuel (1980). I will not be revising any details of the well established accounts or facts of his life - my intention is a new interpretation of universally accepted and reliable evidence within the context of ME symptomology.

Newton was born in the early hours of December 25  1642 in the family home of Woolsthorpe Manor at the Lincolnshire village of Woolsthorpe, around 5 miles south of Grantham, England. (Not to be confused with a second village of Woolsthorpe, around 5 miles west of Grantham!). In late 1647, aged 4, he began to attend day schools, around one mile north of Woolsthorpe, at the villages of Skillington and Stoke Rochford. It was shortly after this time that, I propose, he contracted a mild case of ME and began to exhibit ME symptoms in his behaviour. At this time we get a first report of recognisably restricted male ME behaviour:

“She [Mrs Vincent] says Sir Isaac was always a sober, silent, thinking lad, never was known scarce to play with the boys abroad, but would rather choose to be at home, even among the girls.” (Hastings-White 1936)

This is good evidence of the childhood effect of Newtons ME on his physical and mental capacities. He was grey haired by the age of 30. He was short and thin; carrying the stunted growth and development of a childhood with ME into adulthood. He had the hypersensitivity of the senses of ME. He had a liking for roast meat; and ME patients are highly dependent on protein (Manuel 1980). He was highly intelligent but he was intolerant of any intensive physical exertion, including the physical and mental effort of talking, both of which he avoided all of his life. The disengagement of these definitive ME symptoms, not just his gifted intelligence, already singled him out as a very different boy to the others. As Manuel states, “Stukeleys account is the source for the traditional image of the frail, dreamy, solitary lad, afraid of fights and more comfortable with the girls, disliked, who could only excel at sport through strategems” (Manuel 1980).

Newton attended these first schools between the ages of 4 and 11, and was marked out as being “backward”; a common situation in young child with the cognitive difficulties of ME (Manuel 1980). Although clearly intelligent, he performed way below expectations at these schools. So much so, that when he moved to the Kings School in Grantham, aged 11, he found himself ranked next to bottom of class (Lerner 1973). It is also relevant that he had previously had to walk the mile or so and back to his first school. This would have had an additional effect on his cognitively-impaired state due to the effect of the physical effort on his brain. The difference now was that he was boarding in Grantham and did not have to walk so far to school. As he finally begins to develop cognitively he becomes top student in his class. The usual, non-explanation, for this remarkable change has been that Newton decided to study himself above a boy who had been bullying him; after he, ordinarily passive and fearful, had physically fought and bettered him (Manuel 1980).

Even at this early age, it had already become apparent that Newton was relatively vulnerable to mental disturbance. He was easily irritated,  with a terrible temper and bouts of violent rage, especially against his family and servants; which only increased his unpopularity. Later, he began to believe that he was completely unlike other people (he actually was, he had undiagnosed ME); and was put on Earth for some divine reason. His suspicion and paranoia continued for the rest of his life; friends and enemies alike felt the lash of his tongue and exile. He could take pleasure from the suffering of others. However, as we have seen, Newton was also quiet, studious, withdrawn and anxious. This has led to differing interpretations for the extremes of Newtons  behaviour and poor health, such as manic-depression, Freudian psychopathology or hyper-thyroidism (Jablow-Herschman 1988; Manuel 1980; Lerner 1972).

The most important evidence for understanding Newtons poor mental health, however, is that he experienced a number of “nervous breakdowns” related directly to his over-work; not confrontations with other people. When he took time to rest and sleep he recovered his mental health; this is good evidence for his ME. The most likely explanation for Newtons mental health pattern is that he was a mild sociopath who was kept in check by a solitary life with ME. However, the restrictions of ME and its frustrations were liable to exacerabate his sociopathic tendencies in his interactions with other people; leading to inappropriate and disproportionate reactions. It was this tension that formed his character. This became more apparent when he left academia for executive power at the Mint; like many mild sociopaths in such circumstances he found himself well suited and his natural abilities for cold manipulation and exploitation led to rapid promotion.
 
Newton left Kings School as the top student in 1661 and entered Trinity College, Cambridge University,  on June 5, aged 18. His mothers servants were happy to see him leave, declaring that he was “fit” for nothing but university. Newton appears to have made some attempt to lead a similar life as the other students but their time and energy consuming activities would be impossibly incompatible for a hardworking student with ME. He rapidly became an isolated and solitary figure. He was a highly anxious person all his life and found it difficult to do nothing; he coped with this by keeping his brain occupied at all times with study or mindless copying. He kept himself busy (and exhausted by ME) continuously at this time and began to stay up all night regularly. By 1662, this life-style causes his first ME-related  “nervous breakdown” - this is usually described as his religeous crisis because of his notebook writings of the time - but it is essentially a health breakdown. After recovering, he appears to have continued the same sleep patterns during 1663, and suffered his second “nervous breakdown” in 1664:

“He went through a period of nervous fatigue from excessive work and late hours while observing a comet. From this experience, he learned to get some sleep every night.” (Lerner 1973)

“He sat up so long in the year 1664 to observe a comet that appeared then that he found himself much disordered and learned from thence to go to bed betimes.” (Jones 1991: K.Ms.130.10)

This second “nervous breakdown” appears to have finally given Newton some insight into his poor health - many other nebulous ME symptoms would certainly be accompanying the overwhelming fatigue - and these would  generate his life-long adult obsession with his health. It also set the pattern for his life-long sleep/wake cycle. Like many with ME, he found it difficult to sleep before midnight, no matter how fatigued. (In fact, paradoxically, the more fatigued an ME patient becomes the more difficult they find it to fall asleep. This is because the sleep/wake cycle in ME is displaced so that the sleep period comes later at night and extends through the morning). Up to this time, Newton took advantage of this fact to continue working through the night. What is certain is that he was not taking enough sleep during the day - there is no way that an ME patient can sustain such a regime - and eventually precipitates his second breakdown. 

He now learns to go to bed between midnight and around two or three in the morning - and even then must sleep well into the following day. Humphrey Newton (no relation), his sizar from 1685 to 1690, recorded the sleeping habits he observed: “He very rarely went to bed till two or three of the clock, sometimes not until five or six, lying [in bed] about four or five hours” (quoted in Manuel 1980). 

But even this regime proves to be difficult, we get a complimentary account from Newton himself, to Stukeley: “I have heard him say that, during the course of his most intense studies, he learnt to go to bed at 12 [midnight], finding by experience that if he exceeded that hour but a little, it did him more harm in his health than a whole days study” (Jones 1991: K.Ms.136)

If he stayed up all night then all of the following day, and more, would be lost in bed. This is definitive ME symptomology - fatigue which is totally disproportionate the next day and can last for many days. Only by pacing exertion with good sleep and rest can Newton repeat his level of daily activity. He is physiologically incapable of extending his “normal” day. Even if he went to bed by midnight, he needed to sleep through much of the following morning and spend the rest of the morning in bed resting (like Descartes). 

In a letter  to Conduitt, Humphrey Newton makes this statement:

“He never slept in the day time that I ever percieved. I believe he grudged yet short time he spent eating and sleeping…In a morning he seemed to be as much refreshed with his few hours sleep, as though he had taken a whole nights rest.” (Jones 1991: K.Ms.135)

The key phrase here is, “that I ever perceived”. In an interview with Stukeley, Humphrey admits that Newton probably spent every morning, except Sunday, in bed until midday:

“Mr (Humphrey) Newton of this town, was five years under Sir Isaacs tuition there…He adds that he (Newton) constantly went to church on Sundays, though not often to the College chapel. He supposes the reason to be, because he could not rise soon enough in the mornings, seldom going to bed at that time till 2 or 3 in the morning.” (Jones 1991: K.Ms.136)

It is clear that Humphrey witnessed very little of the hours of sleep and rest Newton was actually keeping behind the closed doors of his study. Selective reporting of Humphreys account has largely been responsible for creating the myth of the super-human Newton with limitless stamina; the myth that Newton worked all day and all night. What we actually see are the physical and mental collapses (nervous breakdowns) of ME which resulted if he did so.

During his undergraduate years Newton kept a detailed notebook, known as the Trinity  notebook, which is the primary source for the genesis of his natural philosophy (Macguire 1983). The notebook contains a numbered text entitled “Questiones quaedam Philosophcae” [sic], translated into English as “Certain Philosophical Questions”. (It is a minor, but telling point, that Newton missed the ‘I’ in “Philosophicae” and then failed to notice it; something that is very familiar to those with ME). In CPQ, we find definitive evidence of Newtons disabling mental fatigue and its associated symptoms. CPQ contains a large number of philosophical headings where Newton has recorded his thoughts. On page 43 of CPQ (page 109 of the notebook) Newton records his thoughts under the heading “Imagination. And fantasy and invention”:

“Fantasy is helped by good air, fasting, and moderate wine. But spoiled by drunkenness, gluttony, too much study (whence, and from extreme passion, comes madness), dizziness and commotions of the spirits. Meditation heats the brain, in some, to distraction; in others, to an aching and dizziness.” (Macguire 1983)

This is an amazing passage by any standard. We get a direct insight into how Newton went about his study, and the effects that this had on him. This is not a description of a normal healthy person; it is a symptom diagnosis of ME. Newton thinks he is talking about universal human experience, completely unaware that he has ME, which causes him to experience his body very differently to everyone else. We know from other sources that Newton skipped meals and drank alcohol only moderately. We also know he avoided caffeine (tea), and drank hot water with orange peel. Regular small meals, no alcohol and no caffeine are essential for keeping the symptoms of ME in check. Newton is telling us that he is helped in his “fantasy” by fasting and moderate wine; he uses this method every day. He regularly skipped his meals which were delivered to his room with wine each day. What Newton actually means by “fantasy” is his deepest abstract thinking: his natural philosophy. By manipulating his ME symptoms he is helped to leave everyday reality behind and think up new realities by cognitive disorientation.

We also see in this passage the balancing act Newton had to perform in order not to be overwhelmed by his ME symptoms, particularly as his mental health is vulnerable to these symptoms. Too much study causes emotional lability  - a classic ME symptom. He tells us the problems he has with studying too much - in complete contrast to the myth that he had the stamina for long study. Importantly, he distinguishes abstract thought (fantasy) from study. He also mentions the classic ME symptoms of dizziness (twice) and “aching” brain brought on by too much study and meditation. His ME was life-long; he complained of “fatigue and dizziness” throughout his adult life.

Newton took his BA in January 1665, aged 22. Due to his failure to follow the prescribed curriculum (like Einstein), he barely passed, and only then on re-examination; which was considered to be “disgraceful” in the university at the time (Hastings-White 1936). He returned to Woolsthorpe in June 1665 because of a plague epidemic. He did not permanently return to Cambridge until April 1667. During these two years away from the university, he created the natural philosophy we know as Newtonian physics. However, his lectures were poorly attended (and understood), and it was another 20 years before he published. 

He was a brilliant mathematician and it was this which propelled his university career. In 1667 he was a Minor Fellow, in 1668 a Major Fellow and an MA, and in 1669 a professor of mathemathics; a post he held for 30 years. It is from this time that we begin to see the classic depictions of Newton as the first absent-minded professor; behaviour which is compatible with an obsessive intellectual workaholic coping with ME. (Less extreme versions of the absent-minded professor subsequently proliferated, but the extremeties were established by Newtons ME behaviour). He shuts himself away in his college rooms. Like Descartes and Einstein, he finds that the only way he can create enough time to work, while coping with ME, is to withdraw into a solitary world. For the next 30 years, working in his Trinity chambers, he laboured against the fatigue and multitudinous symptoms of ME. He had few friends and little social contact, particularly after his mentor Isaac Barrows death in 1676. Westfall makes another profound statement, this time concerning Newtons reclusiveness:

“Never fully at ease with others, he held his distance and lived largely in the setting of his own study. His books furnished the context of his life more than Cambridge or London did. A biographer ignores this truth about Newton at his own peril.” (Westfall 1980)

He had little energy for personal grooming. When he was seen outside his rooms, he was half dressed, unwashed, with his hair in a mess. He walked around college deep in thought and would be seen rushing back to his rooms to write down his ideas. Many of his ideas came to him during vivid dreams. He continued to work deep into the night, on a bad diet. He had problems with body temperature control, especially overheating at night, when he slept naked (like Einstein), which appears to have been very unusual in his historical period:

“He very seldom sat by the fire in his chamber, excepting a long frosty winter, which made him creep to it against his will. I can not say I ever saw him wear a night-gown, but his wearing clothes, that he put off at night, at night do I say, yea rather towards the morning, he put on again at his rising.” (Jones 1991: K.Ms.135)

Like any undiagnosed ME patient, he was thought to be a hypochondriac, searching for relief from the large number of physical symptoms he would experience, believing himself to be suffering with numerous conditions; particularly living the way he did. Newtons own experience of his health is in direct contradiction to those who knew him; Stukeley noted that by “great prudence and naturally good constitution, [he] had preserved his health to old age (quoted in Jablow-Hershman 1988). Yet, as Gjertsen notes:

“He also seems to have dosed himself regularly with a nostrum called Lucatellos balsam. Basically turpentine, he drank it by the pint….It was also something he brought to the attention of his family and friends. Nor was his advice restricted to Lucatellos balsam. Indeed, one of the persistent themes of his correspondence is his eagerness to prescibe a range of dubious cures to almost anyone who would listen.” (Gjertsen 1986)

In the source letter, of 16 January 1727, from Nicholas Wickins to Professor Robert Smith, we find that Newton actually drank Lucatellos Balsam by the quarter pint but the hypochondria of his unstated symptoms, “when he had composed himself”, is clear:

“He [Newton] sometimes suspected himself to be inclining to a consumption, and the medicine he made use of was Lucatellos Balsam which, when he had composed himself, he would now and then melt in quantity about a quarter pint and so drink it.” (Jones 1991: K.Ms.137)  

He only gave between three and ten lectures each year; when they were unattended, he would talk to the walls. Natural philosophy, however, took up little of his time; he wrote over a million words on alchemy, astrology, mysticism, divinity and chronology. He would write and then rewrite the same paper many times over with only minor changes. Even for a person with mild ME, this sort of punishing work regime can not be kept up for very many years. He would be expected to end up ruining his health and move from a mild to a moderate case of ME. By 1675, aged only 31, he was grey-haired and working almost entirely  on alchemy. He resolved to give up natural philsophy except for what gave him private satisfaction; and certainly would not publish it. (He had been badly mauled and depressed by the effort of defending his revolutionary theory of light, published in 1672, against sceptics at the London Royal Society). He now became completely delerious with the shear effort and frustration of overwork with ME. Once again, this exposed his mental fragility  in a third “nervous breakdown”:

“During the following two years Newtons letters  reached levels of rage and paranoia that presaged the major psychotic episode of 1693 in which his illness was revealed to the scientific community. While in this period of delusion, 1677-1678, he threw himself into alchemy with the same fervour that he had brought to rational science, doing fantastic experiments while collecting multitudinous extracts from the bizarre writings of medieval madmen and mountebanks.” (Jablow-Hershman 1988)

By 1679, aged only 37 (like Einstein), his health finally broke down. For the next six years he was in poor health and told Robert Hooke (1635-1703) that working on natural philosophy required too much effort; it was too difficult and tiring (by making his brain ache). In 1684, a visit from Edmund Halley (1656-1742) renewed his interest in natural philosophy and began a chain of events which led to the publication of the Principia in 1687. His ME had taken its toll on his health but six years of relative rest appears to have given him some level of recovery from his ME relapse. The intellectual turning point came in 1685 when he solved the final, and essential, mathematical problem outstanding from his original system of 1665-1667. From 1685 he returned to his old intensive work regime, sleeping and eating very little;  to complete over 500 pages of the Principia. In January 1689, he was elected to the Convention Parliament and lived in London until he returned to Cambridge in February 1690. His long hours continued through 1690, 1691 and 1692 with intense theological study. In the autumn of 1692, Newton himself commented on his lack of sleep and reduction in food intake. In the first half of 1693 he wrote five chapers of a book he believed would be the Principia of alchemy. 

That summer of 1693, aged 50, his health broke down permanently; according to a later letter to John Locke (1632-1704) he had not had more than an hours sleep each night for three weeks. This is enough to trigger a massive and final ME relapse; and this is what we find. For the rest of his life he exhibited the functional capacity restrictions of a moderate ME patient. He was never again able to sustain such a work regime and mathematics would induce intense, dizzying, headaches in a very short period of time. In the first two weeks, he had a fourth “nervous breakdown”, again he exhibited symptoms only compatible with an acute ME episode but exacerbating his sociopathic tendencies:

“During this period Newton hallucinated conversations with absent people, suffered confusion, memory loss, anorexia, acute insomnia, rage and paranoia. Humphrey, describing the same period, adds that Newton alternated between periods of restlessness, during which he sometimes worked furiously  or paced his room…During the crisis there were also times when the illness improved enough for Newton to write logically on mathematics, chemistry and theoloogy…He tried to break with every friend he had and began making paranoid accusations, becoming enraged to the point of wishing dead his friend John Locke.” (Jablow-Hershman 1988)

He remained sick, weary and depressed through 1694 and 1695. In May of 1694, he was so depressed that he could not be persuaded to publish a second edition of the Principia; the second edition would have to wait until 1713. By 1696, he had recovered enough to accept the office of Warden of the Mint, and moved to London for the next 30 years until his death in 1727. When he attended the Mint he stayed until 4pm, but returned home “very tired”. He had full domestic support in London, as he had done at Cambridge, and this made a full-time position, with ME, viable. He was also in charge and this gave him work flexibility. He actively avoided creative work. When he tried to combine his office with mathematics in 1698, he complained that it made his head ache and kept him from sleeping. He was never again well enough to return to mathematics, nor natural philosophy, and effectively retired from academia. He said of himself, “I have not the former consistency of mind”. Stukeley noted that, finally, he “perhaps saw sufficiently that study impaired his health” (Jones 1991; K.Ms.136). Newtons remaining life was now compatible with a moderate ME patient who is only just able to hold down a full-time  job with social and domestic support.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Like Descartes and Newton, Einstein was also chronically ill  but there has been very little attention paid to his health (Kantha 1994). Due to his numerous chronic complaints, many of Einsteins close personal friends were medically qualified (Kantha 1996). One aspect of his childhood health which has received attention is his slow cognitive development (Erikson 1982). He could not even speak fluently until he was nine years old. His memory was poor all of his life. Einstein left his brain to science and neuro-anatomical investigations have led to speculation that he was a dyslexic; yet there is no possible explanation for why it was not life-long (Kantha 1992).

Kantha (1994) dates the beginning of Einsteins chronic ill-health to 1917, aged 37, when he was stricken and bed-bound with a diagnosis of a number of digestive diseases (liver ailment, stomach ulcer, inflammation of the gall bladder) and general weakness. However, none of the digestive diseases were ever substantiated with structural  abnormalities and his general weakness was thought to be secondary. His central symptoms were abdominal pain, chronic diahorrea and vomiting. He lost 25kg in body weight over three years and never fully regained his previous health. Today, Einstein would probably be diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). However, IBS-type symptoms are common to ME patients, and combined with his many life-long ME symptoms, such as general weakness, his digestive symptoms are more indicative of ME. 

Kantha is correct when he says that Einstein never fully recovered from his illness of 1917 but his chronic ill-health is apparent from early childhood. Even Kantha himself notes that Einsteins digestive problems were first recorded six years earlier during his year in Prague of 1911/12. However, Kanthas choice of 1917 is a good one because it marks the end of Einsteins originality and creativity due to his poor health. For the previous ten years he had worked flat out developing his general relativity  theory and his health basically collapsed at the end of it. Like Newton, he had established his natural philosophy, but completely ruined his health by his mid-thirties.  Like Descartes, whose health was already ruined by his moderate ME, Einstein found that when his ME moved from mild to moderate (like Newton) he had to rest continuously and pace his activity, if he wanted to continue with intellectual activity. 

There are an enormous number of published biographies on Einstein but no Einstein autobiography. His “Autobiographical Notes” were published in 1948 but they are really notes on his intellectual development and the evolution of his natural philosophy; we find out almost nothing about how he lived his life. We do have numerous collections of published letters. Still, the more unpalatable aspects of his adult life-style, personality and behavioural traits are only now being revealed after decades of official sanction; and these make uncomfortable reading (Highfield 1993). However, there is a little known biography, published in 1930 when Einstein was aged only 51, which can be treated as the only real Einstein autobiography (Reiser 1930). It was effectively ghost-written by Einsteins stepson-in-law, Rudolf Kayser (using the pen-name Anton Reiser). In a letter of 1931, Einstein wrote “The book by Reiser is, in my opinion, the best biography which has been written about me. It comes from the pen of a man who knows me personally” (quoted in Pais 1982). In the preface to the book Einstein writes:

“The author of this book is one who knows me rather intimately in my endeavour, thoughts, beliefs - in bedroom slippers…I found the facts of the book duly accurate, and its characterization, throughout, as good as might be expected of one who is perforce himself, and who can no more be another than I can.” (Reiser 1930)

Einstein was born at Ulm, southern Germany, on March 14 1879 but his family moved to Munich shortly after. Like Descartes and Newton, he was a very quiet child and his cognitive development was slow (retarded) up until around 10 years old. His parents thought he was abnormal. This slow development is good evidence of a young child with ME, particularly with a very intelligent child who subsequently moves from the bottom of the class to the top. His problems with speech were apparent as young as three years old, and he still lacked fluency aged nine, which suggests that Einstein contracted ME at a very young age indeed. In this aspect, he was more severely affected than Descartes or Newton; who probably contracted their ME around six or seven years of age.

Einstein entered primary school at age six. Between 11 and 12 years of age he became obsessed by religion and the idea of an almighty God. He made up songs in praise of God and sang them in the streets and at home. His religeosity and immaturity caused his governess to give him his first (of many) cruel nicknames, “Pater Langweil” or “Father Bore”; his teachers called him “Herr Langweil” or “Mister Dullard” and, because of his aversion to intensive physical activity, the other children called him “Albert Biedermeier” or “Square Albert” (Michelmore 1963). Einstein described his schooling as “a burdensome duty”. His adult explanation for this was the harsh prevailing regimes he said he experienced in Bavarian schools but the phrase gives more insight coming from a boy who is struggling to cope with his ME and school. At age 9, he moved on to the Luitpold Gymnasium (renamed the Albert Einstein Gymnasium) where:

“Albert continued to be a timid, mentally awkward boy. Rather than being with other boys of his own age or with older people, he preferred being alone. He was strongly built but he was frequently ill.”  (Reiser 1930)

This is a tantalising passage; it is a classic depiction of a young boy with ME at school. We see exactly the same isolated boy that we encountered with Descartes and Newton, again probably bullied, who just can not cope, physically or mentally, with the effort of social interaction. Here, we also have the first reference to chronic ill-health. There are no other records of this frequent illness so we have no details of what form it took, but if we tie this reference in to the “burdensome” nature of school then we can strongly assume that it related to physically coping with the effort of going to school. This is strong evidence of ME but the proof is contained in a passage where Einstein describes the absolutely essential symptomology for a definitive diagnosis of ME today:

“He had a natural antipathy for excessive physical activity, gymnastics and sports. He did not feel himself physically equal to such exertions. He easily became dizzy and tired. Violent activity imposed by the authority of the instructor offended him. Activity should be the result of a personal decision, of free creative emotions, making demands on itself, not compulsion, not submission before authority!” (Reiser 1930)

Amazing! Here we have the physical manifestation of our explanation for that “burdensome” ideology of state schooling: ME. (I am not saying that Einstein did not have an intellectual appreciation of the repressive aspects of state schooling; I am saying that, with ME, he felt it physically too.) The key words in this passage are “excessive” and “violent” activity . It was when Einstein was asked to perform intense activity of short duration that he becomes “dizzy and tired”:  the diagnostic description of what it is like to have ME. With mild ME, if Einstein restricts himself to low intensity activity, then he is able to pace himself over a long period of time: classic ME coping behaviour. This is exactly what we find with Einstein - he could think for many hours but he did not have the capacity for an hour of intense physical exercise without becoming physically disabled. We can also see how his two main low level activities changed as he moved from a life with mild ME to one with moderate ME after 1917. Before 1917, he sat at a desk and went hill-walking; after 1917, he sat in an armchair (or bed) and went sailing. It is not clear just how many days the school required physical activity of its pupils but even once or twice each week would obviously mean a highly stressful and confrontational school life for Einstein. This would be part of the explanation of why he was frequently ill with his ME; either avoiding the lesson all together or as a result of attending.

Another aspect of Einsteins problem with  school was the requirement to learn by rote (memory). This was something he had great difficulty with all of his life; it is also one of the central cognitive symptoms of an ME diagnosis. He did not see intellectual activity as learning a list of “facts” which he could look up in a reference book when required. This meant that the vocabulary of new languages presented particular problems for him:

“But as a student of languages Albert was only mediocre. He lacked the phonetic, as well as the mnemonic gift. He hated the burden of so much memorizing and did not show the slightest talent of learning by rote, which a study of the classical languages called for.” (Reiser 1930)

In 1894 Einsteins family moved to Italy and he was to stay behind in Munich, boarding with a local family, to complete his final year of school. In spring 1895, around his 16th birthday, he obtained a medical certificate from the family doctor with the 19th century ME-compatible diagnosis of “nervous exhaustion”. According to Reiser (1930), the certificate was all part of an elaborate plan to allow him to leave the hated school and join his parents. According to his sister, Maja, he really was “depressed and nervous” but this was because he was fearful of looming military service and “searched for a way out”; “according to German citizenship laws, a male citizen can only emigrate up to the end of his sixteenth year; otherwise, if he fails to report for military service, he is declared a deserter” (Stachel 1987). Either of these highly stressful circumstances would be enough to produce a marked exacerbation of Einsteins ME - manifesting as “nervous exhaustion”. The psychological suffering of an ME patient under this level of stress would be unbearable. The family move to Italy was an amazing turn of luck; he was given the opportunity to emigrate himself out of military service and school - and he took it.

In a letter of 1899 we get a classic description of the way his fluctuating ME symptoms produced emotional lability, “Today we are sullen, tomorrow high-spirited, after tomorrow cold, then again irritated and half-sick of life” (Beck 1987). Once he had established his natural philosophy, according to his friend Philipp Frank, “He seemed to have difficulty in taking everyday matters seriously, and his social manner swung between child-like cheerfulness and apparent cynicism” (quoted in Highfield 1993). Like Descartes and Newton, Einstein was essentially a solitary figure all of his life because, with ME,  there is only enough energy available for intellectual discovery - everything else becomes a tiring chore. Philipp Frank described his aversion to intimacy as “a trait that has always left him a lonely person among his students, his colleagues, his friends, and his family” (quoted in Highfield 1993).

At school he had excelled in mathematics and physics, but now in Italy, with no school leaving certificate, the practicalities of earning a living loomed. And, as he admitted, he knew that he would not be able to cope with it. All of his behaviour seemed incompatible with normal society, as it always does, to a highly intelligent person with undiagnosed ME:

“His only wish was to be able to lead a secluded, modest, and at the same time, ethical and intellectual existence. He had no faith in his own power to maintain himself in a harsh and cruel world. He possessed neither the self-confidence, the disposition, nor the unusual resolution necessary to the attainment of the externals of life…The laws of society were antagonistic to the character of the thoughtful young dreamer…He was still the dreamy, timid boy disinclined to any physical activity…It was indeed an unfortunate situation for this delicate, dreamy young man concerned entirely with spiritual matters.” (Reiser 1930)

An interesting phrase here is “unusual resolution” - Einstein suggests that being adapted to the effort of making a living is not normal yet the great majority of healthy people do it every day. Again, he is speaking from the subjective experience of his own physical and mental capacities and this indicates that these were severely restricted. He attempted the entrance examination to the Polytechnic Academy in Zurich, Switzerland, for those without a school-leaving certificate, in mid-1895; he failed, although his level of mathematics and physics “astounded his professors. It was suggested he attend certain lectures on these subjects. This suggestion, however, was not very helpful to Albert” (Reiser 1930). Reiser (1930) also says that, before the entrance examination, “almost a year had passed since he had received any instruction”. This means that Einsteins absences in his final year of school were probably much worse than has been previously recognised in the biographies.  

He was forced to complete his final year of school at Aarau, Switzerland, which granted him automatic enrollment at the Zurich Polytechnic Academy in October 1896. At the Academy he basically ignored the prescribed syllabus, skipped lectures and practicals, and embarked on his own wide-ranging reading. Both Einstein and Newton acted like graduate students while under-graduates; nor were they interested in passing examinations. He was so absorbed by his own physical theories that he lost interest in mathematics entirely. As he later acknowledged this was a mistake; one which, as we shall see, sets him apart from Descartes and Newton. Due to his friendship with fellow students Marcel Grossman (1878-1936) and, later wife, Mileva Maric (1875-1948) he was able to pass his examination papers with good marks; yet, with considerable effort due to his difficulty with memorising bald facts. He received his diploma in 1900 and had been promised a teaching assistant position at the Academy. The position was withdrawn. According to Reiser, Einstein had been the victim of a campaign by one of his own teaching assistants to discredit him with the professors (Reiser 1930). However, some what naively, Einstein had barely been known to attend classes in four years and one professor unsuprisingly called him “a lazy dog”. Still, it was a massive blow to Einstein as the only options now left to him were the hard slog of school teaching or business.

During his four years at the Academy, he lived an unhealthy life-style on a low income. He lived in a modest room and ate in temperance restaurants (when he actually ate a meal). According to Reiser, “he managed on little, however, since he demanded no pleasures. His nourishment was insufficient. It is certain that the disease of the stomach which affected Albert Einstein in later years was the result of these years of malnutrition” (Reiser 1930). For someone with mild ME, the stress of this kind of eating will eventually take a severe toll. He had the classic ME symptom of aversion to alcohol but he  continuously drank coffee and smoked/chewed large cheap cigars. ME patients are hypersensitive to caffeine and he probably lived on a caffeine high during his creative years. Many ME patients derive symptom relief from tobacco and he was unwittingly self-treating. His life-long love of cigars was so great that, even as a young man, his teeth were stained brown and he took the smell everywhere. He had the classic ME symptom of a weak voice but this was put down to the cigars (Michelmore 1963). Like Newton, Einstein had no time for his own appearance and dress; already, he conformed to the mad professor archetype created by Newton. For someone with ME, personal grooming is major effort; for Einstein, who was on a “mission”, like Newton, the effort of personal grooming and appearance with ME is unjustifiable.

Again, Marcel Grossman came to his rescue and in June 1902 he started work on a trial basis as a technical expert third class at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern - what Einstein called his ideal “shoe-makers” job. (It is also significant, from an ME perspective, that his other ideal job was “lighthouse keeper”). This is a diverting sedentary job that provides a full-time income from part-time work - with a major part of the working day clandestinely devoted to intellectual pursuits not paid work. The reason Einstein was so happy with this arrangement was that it is also the ideal job for a mild ME patient with intellectual aspirations - it suited his pathophysiology perfectly. It had the benefit of psychological stability from a regular income combined with low physical and mental effort. The interesting patent work stopped him from “burning out”. As Lerner (1973) puts it, “Before publication of his findings in 1905 (when he was only 26 years old), he had not even seen a theoretical physicist except, as Infeld said, “when he looked in the mirror”. A bright, eager, persistent nobody came up with the solutions to important problems in physics and revolutionized space-time concepts for the first time since Newton”.

However, this period does provide one of the key pieces of evidence that Einstein was struggling with the daily effort of working with mild ME. 1905 was Einsteins most productive year - he completed his PhD and five major papers. He worked solidly, with very little sleep, on the mathematical basis of the special relativity  theory for five weeks, and then collapsed (like Newton and Descartes), spending two weeks in bed recuperating. Even taking into account the work he completed, two weeks is an abnormally long time for a period of bed rest - only the pathological fatigue of ME can explain this type of behavioural pattern. He was so thankful and fond of his time as an unknown clerk that he later said that it would have been impossible to  develop his ideas with a wife and two children to support. 

However, it is an important point that, with ME, Einstein chose two “motherly”  women as wives who appreciated his need for complete domestic care. Mileva would complain, “Does nobody realize my husband works himself half to death?” - like Descartes and Newton, “he liked to steal extra time in bed in the morning” (Michelmore 1963). His son, Hans Albert, “remembered his father lazing in bed on his own in the mornings” (Highfield 1993). There is also this quote from a letter  of 1897, aged only 17, where he says that his life seemed “so philistine that people could use it for setting their watches - except that their watches would be somewhat late in the morning” (Stachel 1987). However, we have the definitive statement on his “habit” of late sleeping and the rapid mental fatigue from Einstein himself in a letter  to Mileva in August 1900:

“Once again a few lazy and dull days flitted past my sleepy eyes, you know, such days on which one gets up late because one cannot think of anything proper to do, then goes out until the room has been made up, then studies for a few hours until one gets too tired.” (Stachel 1987)

Einstein left the patent office in October 1909 to be an associate professor at the University of Zurich. Unfortunately, he was now an independent thinker; someone for academics to study but not an academic himself. As Reiser (1930) says “Einstein had an entirely different attitude toward science. He knew that his colleagues were his superiors in erudition, in the mere accumulation of knowledge. But they lacked the inspiring passion, his gift of artistic intuition…He showed a definite timidity, which even to-day [aged 50] he has not overcome, toward speaking in public. He always called his lectures “performances on the trapeze”. His nature, which above all enjoyed being alone, or with his work in the silence of his own room, found his professorial activity hardly pleasant”. His “gift of artistic intuition”  was ME but this also meant he was unable to cope with the life of a university professor. As Reiser (1930) emphasizes, “The way of life which has always seemed the most agreeable to him is one which allows him the most rest, seclusion and leisure for scientific work”. Again, we see the unusual need for “rest” at the centre of Einsteins behaviour.

From March 1911 to August 1912, he lived with his family in Prague as a professor at the Karl-Ferdinand university. Living conditions in Prague were extremely difficult for everyone at this time and this is where Einstein first exhibited his Irritable Bowel Syndrome-type symptoms. The quality of the drinking water in Prague was poor and his abdominal pains were first put down to an allergy to the water. Later, they were attributed to his student diet. It now appears that the poor drinking water of Prague was the final insult to his delicate ME digestive system.

By leaving Prague, he appears to recover from his digestive problems but the damage has been done. For the next five years he works flat out on developing and publishing his General Relativity Theory with no regard to the warning in Prague. Like 1905, he collapses again in 1917 after a prolonged period of physical and mental stress, after completing what will be seen as his lifes work at only 38 years old. His bowel problems become chronic and the fatigue and weakness he experienced all of his life are finally revealed alongside. His ME finally catches up with him. His condition now deteriorates permanently from mild to moderate ME. He is now officially chronically ill  but the focus of his chronic ill-health is his abdominal pains rather than his wider ME symptoms. He lost 25kg of body weight in the first  two months and did not significantly recover until 1920 (Kantha 1994). Later, he received a diagnosis of an intestinal cyst but, when he was opened up, there were no structural  abnormalities; only a small area of adhesion to the abdominal cavity. After the adhesion was cut the abdominal pains continued - the cause was functional (Lerner 1973). Again, Reiser makes clear that Einstein had always been “constitutionally” weak:

“Einsteins official duties and intensive research strained his physical energy to the utmost. The continual excitement, disappointment and renewal of hope, meant an unusual psychical burden, which only a robust nature could withstand. A person inwardly as soft and tender as Einstein was hardly equal to the excitement. In the long run, these years of constant creative activity would become too much for him to bear.” (Reiser 1930) 

Even while chronically ill with moderate ME, Einstein continued to push his health way beyond its capacities. The final straw for his health came ten years later in early 1928. A few months previous, he had been sailing alone in his small boat and was forced to row himself ashore when the wind dropped (Lerner 1973). The exercise intolerance of his ME left him severely weakened. In March 1928, he travelled to Zuoz in Switzerland for rest and recuperation, “on the train he felt unusually weak and lethargic. He had been on the move for months…His mysterious stomach pains were bothering him again. He was very short of breath. For weeks he had not eaten a decent meal” (Michelmore 1963).

During his stay in Zuoz, he agreed to travel to Leipzig on one of his regular assignments as an expert witness in a patent dispute. According to Folsing (1997), “Arriving [back] in Zouz at night, he trudged up hill through deep snow for several hundred yards to the Meinhardt chalet, carrying a heavy bag. This effort led to a dramatic circulatory collapse, no doubt aggravated by years of neglecting his health”. He returned to Berlin gravely sick. His physician friend Janos Plesch (1878-1958) diagnosed acute dilation/inflammation of the heart brought on by excessive physical effort. He has to stay in bed for four months and remained very weak for a year. Plesch orders a salt-free diet and, dangerously, diuretics; presumably from thinking that high blood pressure was a causative factor in Einsteins heart problem (Folsing 1997). This was the worst treatment which Einstein could have been prescribed and he acknowledged years later that the lack of salt and water and been making his weakness and fatigue even worse. An ME patient has abnormally low blood pressure due to uniquely low blood volume. Salt helps to keep the ME patients blood volume and blood pressure as high as possible; and therefore helps to keep them as well as possible.

The functional change in Einsteins struggling heart was almost certainly related to the strain of his heavy bag on his back muscles and spine. From my own experience, his ME-weakened back muscles let his spinal column shift slightly and trap nerves to his heart. This would cause his heart to struggle, beat very fast, cause shortness of breath and make the slightest activity require enormous effort. This is a very serious complication for an ME patient because they use the little effort which they can muster in coping with the superimposed restrictions of their struggling heart. He really needed an osteopath but the bed rest released enough pressure off his heart nerves to allow him to become ambulatory again. However, without osteopathic treatment, his heart would be continually susceptible to any kind of effort. So, he was no longer lift anything heavy, climb many stairs or do anything which required strength and stamina. He began to complain of back pain, weak legs, tiring easily and tightening in his chest when walking. From now on he has de-caffeinated coffee and smoked a pipe not cigars (Michelmore 1963). Elsa recorded that, “My husband has gained strength. But he has not recovered his former freshness and vigour…He will have to content himself with living at a very leisurely pace” (quoted in Folsing 1997). At age 49, he effectively became a much older man; now with moderate ME and a heart problem. 

In October 1933, Einstein, his second wife Elsa, and his personal assistant Helen Dukas moved to Princeton University in the United States. Apart from a brief trip to Bermuda in 1935 Einstein never left the USA again. He spent the next 20 years being cared for by his wife and Helen Dukas. Most of the time he sat in an armchair, wearing slippers without socks, smoking a pipe, with his working papers, and a blanket, on his lap. His face was tired and yellow. In 1948, an exploratory laparotomy found a large intact abdominal aortic aneurysm which ruptured and caused his death in 1955. No anatomical explanations were ever found for his abdominal pains, heart problems, weakness, fatigue and exercise intolerance.

Discussion

In this paper, and a previous paper, I have asserted that the three most important natural philosophers ever to have lived were all near life-long sufferers of the same chronic disabling disease: ME. All three contracted the condition very early in life, Einstein especially. Descartes was a life-long moderate case. Newton and Einstein were initially mild cases but progressed to moderate cases through disregard for their health. There is no doubt that they were all three chronically ill. On an individual level, the evidence of ME for each of them is overwhelming; the specific nature of their symptoms means the only possible diagnosis is ME. It is not a case of exploring and excluding other diseases; the symptoms and behaviour of all three are positively diagnostic of ME.

We can also appeal to probability. What is the probability of being able to make a very strong individual case for all three of these men having ME? In one of them it would be a curiosity, in two out of three it would be significant, in three out of three it is mathematical proof. With a male prevalence for ME of around 1 in 4000, the probability of this happening by chance is 64 billion to one.

If we accept the proof that all three men share a common link of ME pathophysiology then we are left with the conclusion that ME is responsible for their natural philosophy. This is intellectually very uncomfortable. It is not that they were each a “genius”; if we measure that quality by their individual level of intelligence. The fact that they were all extremely intelligent is a given. They were all mathematically gifted. Descartes and Newton effectively established Modern mathematics by having to create the new mathematics necessary to “prove” their natural philosophy. Einstein found himself in an age of mathematical specialization as a result of this new mathematics, and regreted his lack of mathematical understanding for his failed post-General Relativity  natural philosophy. He said, “If only the development of the thought did not come up against such infamous mathematical difficulties” (quoted in Lerner 1973). 

What is it about their ME which meant they were able to establish natural philosophical systems which converged closely with reality and could be used to test and predict the movement of matter? Two shared areas of ME-related  significance immediately stand out. One: they contracted ME as young boys. Two: they experienced a trance-like ME thinking state. Taking the first point, it is important that all three experienced the retardation of physical growth and cognitive development which is symptomatic of ME. Descartes was sent to school much later than usual because of this. Newton and Einstein were bottom of class in their early school years. Both of these men explicitly remarked that they had never grown out of thinking like a child. This was very marked in Einstein who was often described as “child-like”. There is also the effect of the ME symptom of emotional lability  which exacerbates this child-like behaviour. It is possible to speculate that ME in children so young can result in permanent anatomical changes in the brain (Kantha 1992). Here is Einstein:

“The normal adult never bothers his head about space-time problems. Everything there is to be thought about, in his opinion, has already been done in early childhood. I, on the contrary, developed so slowly that I only began to wonder about space and time when I was already grown up. In consequence I probed deeper into the problem than an ordinary child would have done.” (quoted in Koestler 1975). 

Newton produced his most famous autobiographical quote on this subject:

“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to my self I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary while the great ocean of Truth lay all undiscovered before me.” 

Turning to the second point of trance-like ME thinking. In all three men this was marked - it amounted to an amazing ability for intuitive thinking. They could turn their thought inwards until reality was completely left behind for very long periods of time. It has often been remarked that all three men could concentrate for long periods of time. What is being talked about here is not actually concentration but their ability to enter this trance-like ME state. In fact, ME patients can concentrate for much shorter periods of time than healthy people.

Descartes spent hours “day-dreaming” in bed every morning of his life. One time, Newton dismounted his horse on a steep hill and, thinking on some problem, walked five miles, completely oblivious to his surroundings. Some evenings Newton ended up with the bridle in his hand while the horse found his way home. When he was assigned to look after the sheep on the family farm, he was so deep in thought that he would completely forget about them and they would wander away from the farm. “Nor would Isaac so much as remember his dinner time, so intent was he in philosophical meditation” (Hastings-White 1936). Stukeleys famous quote on Newtons discovery of his concept of gravity has the same connotations of the ME-induced trance:

“After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank tea, under the shade of some apple trees, only he and myself. Amidst other discourse, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood.” (Hastings-White 1936)

Einstein described himself as a “dreamer”. He called the ME thought-trance his “somnambulistic state, which he said was necessary for his intense thinking, he would wander without direction and end up miles from home” (Michelmore 1963). He would sit quietly and just think for hours. On one occasion, when a cleaner entered his room, he remained wide-eyed and motionless in his armchair. The cleaner reported to Helen Dukas that Einstein was unwell (Lerner 1973). Einsteins son, Hans Albert, reported that, “I also recall my mother saying that even the loudest baby-crying did not seem to disturb father. He could go on with his work completely impervious to noise” (quoted in Highfield 1993). His sister, Maja, had a similar story, “His work habits were quite odd: even a large, quite noisy group, he was able to withdraw to the sofa, take pen and paper in hand…and lose himself so completely in a problem that the polyphonic conversation stimulated rather than disturbed him” (Stachel 1987). Highfield goes on to say:

“It was as if Einstein was happiest living in a trance, content for others to guide him around the obstacles of daily life…Elsa described how Einstein sometimes restlessly roamed the apartment, lost in thought, oblivious to her existence. He would wander off to his study, come back, absently finger the piano, jot down some notes, then wander off to his study again…Her husband was like a boy lost in a dreamworld, sauntering out into the rain without a coat or hat, then returning to stand aimlessly on the staircase.” (Highfield 1993)

Turning to the context of the genealogy to the history of Modern physics, there is no doubt that Einstein “descends” from Newton, but surely the rightful “ancestors” of Newton are Copernicus (1473-1543), or Kepler (1571-1630), or Galileo (1564-1642) - not Descartes? After all, I make no claims that these other natural philosophers had ME and they were also influential for Newton. There are two points to consider here. Firstly, these earlier natural philosophers did not create “systems” of natural philosophy, as Descartes did. Secondly, Descartes system of natural philosophy ruled supremely over rational European thought at the time Newton was at university and did not fall until Newton toppled it (Watson 1966). Descartes had already absorbed these earlier natural philosophers into his own universal system. 

The matter of Descartes influence on Newton has already been settled: “As a scientist and mathematician Descartes was probably the single most important influence on the intellectual development of Newton” (Gjertson 1986). It was in his final six months as a Trinity undergraduate, in 1664, that Newton made a complete study of Descartes natural philosophy. It is no coincidence that over the following two years, at home in Woolsthorpe, Newton developed his own natural philosophy based on the concept of gravitation. He considered himself to be a Cartesian until his own natural philosophy made this untenable (Koyre 1965). He owned a Latin copy of Descartes collected works, published in Amsterdam by Elsevier in 1656 (McGuire 1983). This book is now kept in the library of Trinity College at Cambridge University. The page references to Descartes works in Newtons CPQ exactly match the 1656 Amsterdam edition. A detailed 100 page review of “The Cartesian  Influence” on Newton can be found in McGuire (1983). Indeed, the very title of Newtons “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” (1687) was a direct challenge to Descartes own “Principia Philosophiae” (1644).  

So, we are now left with a number of fascinating propositions concerning our new genealogy and the history of Modern physics. We can now see that the astonishing “acceleration” of Modern physics in the 17th century was the result of not one, but two, highly unlikely events. Firstly, the appearance of the first ancestor in our ME genealogy, Descartes, who created his system of natural philosophy in the first half of the century. This was revolutionary in itself; it became established against all opposition, such was its rational power. There was no reason why the Cartesian system should ever be superceded (it could still be in place even now); because that would require another Descartes. Astonishingly, almost immediately another Descartes did appear: Newton. In a further contingent event, Newton was one on the first English people to study Descartes after his work was published. By the second half of the century he had created his own system, from the “genes” of his own ancestor, which superceded the most rational system of natural philosophy the world had ever seen before it had barely had time to establish a history. Imagine if Newton had not been born, or gone to Cambridge, or studied the Cartesian system. Would we have had to wait for Einstein to do what Newton did? Imagine waiting for Einstein to create the Newtonian system after 250 years of Cartesianism, not 50 years. These are all possible realities in this improbable universe.

What about Einstein? We now have an explanation for why we had to wait 200 years for the Newtonian system to be superceded - we had to wait for the appearance of the next descendant in our genealogy. But there was no necessity that an Einstein should ever appear. The Newtonian system could still be with us now - with no Einsteinian system in existence. In the same way that we could still be using the Cartesian system if Newton and Einstein had not appeared. Where would we be if all three men had never existed? We are left with the conclusion that for physics to develop its history requires the existence of highly intelligent gifted individuals who must also have the disease of ME from childhood. Their existence is completely contingent and highly unlikely. When they do occur they create Bachelardian/Kuhnian genealogical breaks and ruptures in the history of physics with  new natural philosophies which absorb and supercede those left by their “ancestors”. 

APPENDIX 1: Diagnostic Criteria for ME Attributable to Descartes, Newton and Einstein

                                                                    ME Symptom                                           Evidence of symptom in
Criteria                                                       Frequency (%)                    Descartes                    Newton                    Einstein

No differential diagnosis                                       100                                 yes                            yes                             yes
(all symptoms are “constitutional”)

Rapid physical & mental fatigue                          100                                 yes                            yes                             yes
(daily capacities less than 50% normal)

Disabling fatigue over many days                        100                                 yes                            yes                              yes
(following normally trivial tasks)

Exercise intolerance                                              100                                 yes                            yes                              yes
(post-exertional malaise)

Daily fluctuation of fatigue                                    100                                 yes                            yes                              yes
(relapsing course)

Lack of strength/physical weakness                   100                                 yes                            yes                              yes
 (loss of stamina in repetitive tasks)
 
Slow physical & mental development                  100                                 yes                            yes                              yes
in young children (lack of stature)

Difficulty with concentration                                 100                                 yes                            yes                               yes                       
(prolongation of mental tasks)
  
Short-term memory deficits                                    100                                 yes                            yes                               yes
(“slow”/difficulty with word recall)

Prolonged daily periods of sleep/rest                    100                                 yes                             yes                             yes

Insomnia/daytime sleeping                                      100                                 yes                            yes                              yes

Emotional lability                                                       100                                 yes                             yes                              yes
 
“Quiet”/withdrawn/socially retiring                        100                                 yes                             yes                              yes

Alcohol intolerance                                                   100                                 yes                             yes                              yes

“Hypochondria” /constitutional symptoms           100                                 yes                             yes                              yes

Obsession with diet/food                                          100                                 yes                             yes                              yes
(irritable bowel-type syndrome) 
                                            
Heat/cold intolerance                                               100                                  yes                             yes                              yes
(body temperature dissociation)

Fatigue-induced stress reactions                           100                                  yes                             yes                              yes 
(anxiety/panic disorder/low mood/melancholic)

Good motivation/self-esteem/life appreciation     100                                  yes                             yes                              yes
(no clinical depressive illness)

Vivid dreams/nightmares/day-dreaming                 100                                  yes                             yes                              yes          
(fatigue-induced) 

Source: Tyrell D (1994) Report from the national task force on chronic fatigue syndrome, post viral fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis. Bristol UK: Westcare.

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