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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
The year 1933 marked the real turning point in the development of Eddington's thoughts. In this chapter I shall try to reconstruct his state of mind in that year, so as to assess the way in which he decided to go ahead with the writing of RTPE. My discussion up to now makes it possible to be more precise about the questions raised in Chapter 1. They can be broken down into six separate ones:
What made Eddington write RTPE?
Why is it so obscure?
What important and valuable aspects does it have?
Then 4, 5,6 are the same questions for FT. It already seems likely from my argument, and it will prove to be the case, that the answers for FT are independent of those for RTPE. As a first stage the answer to 1 and in part to 2 will be found in this chapter.
The outside world
The last three chapters have been inward looking. I have not tried to relate the excitement that the world of physics was going through to the more pedestrian doings of the outside world. I think that is in keeping with the mood in Britain in the late 1920s. But it will not do for 1933. By then the world was showing sinister changes. In Germany Hitler had come to power in January. By the middle of the year the consequences were becoming clear. In particular the German preparations for a second world war and for attacks on Jews in Germany were seen to be in train.
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