This paper will discuss what makes Albert Einstein a hero. Webster=s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary gives several definitions of a hero, most of which apply to Einstein. According to Webster=s a hero is a mythological or legendary figure endowed with great ability; a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities; the central figure in an event, period or movement; and an object of extreme admiration and devotion. These definitions can be readily applied to Einstein who was indeed a hero of the world community. Unlike heroes of legend, however, Einstein was a modern hero.
In naming Albert Einstein APerson of the Century@ TIME Magazine wrote Afor Einstein to become a modern icon, especially in America, required a total revision of the definition of a hero.@
Anti-intellectualism has been (an) integral...
part of American culture....In America it is not
enough to be smart; one must compensate for one=s
intelligence by also showing the canniness and
real-world power of the cowboy and the pioneer.
Einstein did this. He was the first modern
intellectual superstar....(Rosenblatt 32)
Einstein=s intellectual and scientific achievements were prodigious and far-reaching and completely changed the scientific world. His contributions to modern science and knowledge begin with and invariably relate back to his concept of an endless universe, with reality in any respect being based on that part of the universe in which a person is located. His most eminent achievement was his Theory of Relativity. He developed his incredible theory at age 26, which was a remarkable advance for science. No scientist before Einstein had ever challenged the basic concepts of motion, space or time, as they were formulated two centuries earlier by Newton. Basically his theory denied simultaneous events, denied absolute time and proposed that time slows down for an object in motion, and energy and ma...