He can not distinguish questions regarding the existence of the universe from questions regarding its physical origin; he does not grasp how assertions regarding the
absolute must logically differ from assertions regarding contingent beings; he does not
know the differences between truths of reason and empirical facts; he has no concept of ontology, in contradistinction to, say,
physics or evolutionary biology; he does not understand how assertions regarding transcendental perfections differ from assertions regarding maximum magnitude; he clumsily imagines that the idea of God is susceptible to the same argument from infinite regress traditionally advanced against materialism; he does not understand what the metaphysical concept of simplicity entails; and on and on.
It is arguable that, had Einstein
known a metaphysics more favorable to quantum
physics than the Spinozism and other similar doctrines influencing him, he might not have spent the latter decades of his life vainly attempting to recover the
absolute «incarnate reason» of classical causality which had been made irrelevant by twentieth - century discoveries, including his own.