Is Einstein's statement about the comprehensibility of the world justified?

[oldman]

I've always considered Einstein's quote to simply mean there is a questionable extent to which the observed (universe) can objectively be the observer.
Humans are made of the stuff of the universe and governed by the laws we seek to discover.
It has been said many times in many different ways, but my favourite analogy is: What does my tongue taste like?
I think Einstein was simply expressing the incomprehensible nature of comprehending what is inseparable from the comprehender.

Thanks, Chrisc. Or, Einstein was saying that he didn't understand why the universe could be figured out by us humans. But there's so much that we still don't understand that I suspect hubris motivated this clever remark!

People accept very easily that our fellow creatures, from Aardvarks to Zebras, comprehend their environment only to an extent limited by their evolutionary needs. Einstein ignored the possibility that despite the clevernes we have acquired by meme-evolution, we may be similarly handicapped by being "made of the stuff of the universe and governed by the laws we seek to discover" as you say. He attributed to us an exceptional status which I don't think we deserve.

But perhaps he was just celebrating having discovered GR, in which case he can be forgiven for his anthro'centric remark!

 

[Chrisc]

Hi oldman, I appreciate your point with respect to the anthropocentric tendencies of all us humans.
I think in retrospect, Einstein was simply making a humorous statement that reflects this tendency in
the scientific community at large, including himself.

Anyway one interprets his quote, in the end I think it comes down to the same thing.
If one cannot comprehend something, its incomprehensible nature in fact says little about its nature and much more about our own.