A Note on the Intellectual Connection between Albert Einstein and Thorstein Veblen

In Albert Einstein's commentary on Bertrand Russell's theory of knowledge, written in the early 1940s, Einstein acknowledged his appreciation of Thorstein Veblen's approach to scientific methodology. Veblen's nephew, Oswald Veblen, a mathematician, met Einstein in 1921 and the two became the first four faculty members of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Whether or not Einstein had read the writings of Thorstein Veblen prior to his activities at the Institute is not clear from any biographical material on his life. It is likely that Oswald Veblen introduced Einstein to the works of his uncle. Einstein's epistemological viewpoint shared much in common with Thorstein Velblen's assessment of scientific knowledge and its epistemological foundations. In all likelihood, Einstein's primary attraction to Veblen as a writer on science was Veblen's essays, The Place of Science in Modern Civilization and Other Essays, originally published in 1919.