Yes — like all ideas, it started that way.
In my Idea of Ideas framework, all ideas in nature are either true direct descriptions, true indirect ones, or false in a logical setting. They are empirically true, rationally true, or irrationally false. However, when someone uncovers one of these latent ideas embedded in the landscape of reality, we have to determine which category it falls into and that process is not hard. All ideas begin as irrational.
That doesn’t mean wrong. Irrational ideas are either untestable or are simply awaiting testing, and we don’t always know which it is. Disproven ideas stay as irrational and we can now choose to move onto other ideas in our pursuit of truth. Confirmed direct ideas about reality become empirical ideas and the confirmed indirect ideas become rational ones.
Einstein’s general theory of relativity, published in 1915, was exactly that — a new irrational idea, untested and unverified in a logical setting. It challenged Newton’s gravity — which, by then, was an empirical idea, proven through direct observation. Yes, his idea existed before he articulated it — as a truth embedded in the fabric of reality. But on our side of the split, inside the human mind, it began as a new irrational idea.
And, at the time, Einstein wasn’t the only challenger. Physicist Gunnar Nordström had his own theory of gravity. Both Einstein and Nordström believed their ideas described reality — but until tested, both remained irrational.
Then came 1919. During a total solar eclipse, Arthur Eddington’s expedition observed starlight bending around the Sun — exactly as Einstein’s equations predicted. That’s the moment Einstein’s idea became empirical. It was tested, confirmed, and upgraded to one of our clearest direct descriptions of reality.
That’s how ideas evolve in the Idea of Ideas. They begin as irrational. Some are disproven. Some get ignored. But all descriptions of reality, both direct and indirect — the true ones — are empirical or rational. So yes — even Einstein’s idea was once irrational at one time. That’s not a flaw. That’s the process of science and philosophy at work.
