美友人對愛信的理解

    This is an interesting little statement from Einstein. He is patronizing to Chinese culture, of which he knows little. He is saying that the Western Scientific world-view and the scientific method for discovering truth are in a class by themselves, the "right way" to understand reality, and the only right way. He is not blaming the Chinese sages for not finding the scientific path, but rather claiming it was lucky for the West that Euclid and Galileo and Francis Bacon came up with the scientific method.

    He is not insulting but condescending to China. He doesn't mention the many contributions to scientific knowledge that came from China and India and Persia. I don't think he knew about them. He clearly doesn't regard the paradoxical ontology of Lao Tzu or the social wisdom of Confucius or the diplomatic methods of Sun Tzu on the same level as Western science. 

    I know very little about historic Chinese contributions to science, but I think Einstein knew less.