In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

RAILROADS 183
coextensive with the world, exclude the possibility of outside observation.
This is why railroads emerge as a favorite metaphor in discourses
that strive to explain to nonspecialist readers the most revolutionary
insights in modern philosophy and science. In such texts, trains stand for
certain frame conditions of human existence which are so general that
they tend to be overlooked. Theodor Lessing, for example, uses the
Orient Express to illustrate his conception of human consciousness:
On the Orient Express, which constantly moves around the earth, a
thinking being was born. This thinking being knew nothing of the fact
that it was born on the Orient Express. Riding on the train became this
person's way of experiencing the world. As a thinking being in later
years, the person began to philosophize. This philosophy asserts the
following: "Here I stand, the natural center of the universe. The single
fact of which I can be certain is my consciousness. The earth, in contrast,
moves. The trees, streets, people, telegraph poles-everything
passes by tirelessly. Everything changes, everything flows" ... I sit on
a stone, off in a remote place, and speak to my heart: "What a poor
fool this thinking being is. It doesn't even suspect that everything remains
perpetually the same. It is born on the Orient Express. This
express train which constantly moves around everything in a circle is
called 'consciousness.'" (Lessing, 348-349)
Lessing's parable is by no means original. It has long been familiar
through Albert Einstein's publications on relativity: "I stand at the window
of a railway carriage which is traveling at a uniform speed, and drop
a stone on the embankment, without throwing it. Disregarding the effect
of air resistance, I see the stone fall in a straight line. A pedestrian who
observes the event from the footpath notices that the stone falls to earth
in a parabolic curve. I now ask: Do the 'points' traversed by the stone
'in reality' form a straight line or a parabola?" (Einstein, 9). So frequent
is Einstein's use of this image that, only a few pages further on, he can
invite his readers to return with him "to our old friend the railway
carriage ... traveling along the tracks" (16).
Related Entries
Elevators, Employees, Telephones, Wireless Communication, Center vs.
Periphery, Present vs. Past, Action = Impotence (Tragedy)