Free Ebook The Natural Philosophy of James Clerk Maxwell, by P. M. Harman
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The Natural Philosophy of James Clerk Maxwell, by P. M. Harman
Free Ebook The Natural Philosophy of James Clerk Maxwell, by P. M. Harman
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This book provides an introductory yet comprehensive account of James Clerk Maxwell's (1831-79) physics and world view. The argument is structured by a focus on the fundamental themes that shaped Maxwell's science: analogy and geometry, models and mechanical explanation, statistical representation and the limitations of dynamical reasoning, and the relation between physical theory and its mathematical description. This approach, which considers his physics as a whole, bridges the disjunction between Maxwell's greatest contributions: the concept of the electromagnetic field and the kinetic theory of gases. Maxwell's work and ideas are viewed historically in terms of his indebtedness to scientific and cultural traditions, of Edinburgh experimental physics, and of Cambridge mathematics and philosophy of science, which nurtured his career. Peter M. Harman is Professor of the History of Science at Lancaster University. He has published primarily on the history of physics and natural philosophy in the 18th and 19th centuries, the period from Newton to Maxwell. His previous books include Energy, Force, and Matter (Cambridge, 1982), The Investigation of Difficult Things (Cambridge, 1992), After Newton: Essays on Natural Philosophy (Variorum, 1993), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, volume 1 (Cambridge, 1990), volume 2 (Cambridge, 1995).
- Sales Rank: #2614345 in Books
- Brand: Cambridge University Press
- Published on: 1998-05-28
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.98" h x .67" w x 5.98" l, 1.10 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 248 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
eThe book is wonderfully informative and insightful throughout; its merit lies as much in stimulating questions as in providing answers...what is most impressive about this book is its treatment of the whole range of Maxwell's activity as a natural philosopher with this kind of depth and nuance, making possible a synthesis that constitutes authentic progress in Maxwell studies." American Scientist
"James Clerk Maxwell brought about not one but two distinct revolutions in physics...In The Natural Philosophy of James Clerk Maxwell, Peter Harman explores both and allows us to experience a mind so mysteriously prescient as to see truths decades before anyone else did...Harman tells his tale skillfully, with an admirable use of quotations from Maxwell's published and unpublished writings." Physics Today
"...the author draws attention to the importance of Maxwell's studies in philosophy, which were to influence him greatly later, and the state of the ideas concerning the fundamentals of mechanics in the middle of the nineteenth century. After these preliminaries, the author goes on to discuss the work of Maxwell. Amongst the lesser-known topics which Maxwell studies are mixing colours, Saturn's rings and metrology, including the measurement of velocity of light, which was later to play an important role in his researches...This is an interesting book, showing the thoughts of a Scot who was undoubtedly one of the greatest natural philosophers in Britain...any physicist/applied mathematician will find much of interest in this book and it has my recommendation..." Ll. G. Chambers, Mathematical Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Maxwell as a Natural Philosopher - not a scientist
By Clay Garner
Preface explains: "The traditional term 'natural philosopher' may be aptly applied to a scientist who was also a scholar, deeply conscious of the historical roots and philosophical import of his physics." This makes Maxwell a fascinating study.
Herman covers two areas of Maxwell's work. His scientific work on color, Saturn's rings, gases, electromagnetism, etc. He also explains why Maxwell was able to change the foundations of science forever and his opposition to the cultural shift to the worship of science.
Covers the influence of William Hamilton and William Whewel. They lectured on the relationship between theory and observation. Page 27 quotes Maxwell's essay: "The dimmed outlines of phenomenal things all merge into another unless we put on the focusing glass of theory." Herman adds: "This passage, displaying a sophisticated understanding of scientific knowledge as theory-dependent, expressing the view that phenomena are intelligible only if viewed through the telescope of theory and in proper adjustment. . . is startling in its philosophical acuity." Maxwell was a deep thinker. He discovered what others did not see.
Page 59: "Maxwell discusses the way of conformity of molecules to physical standards pointed to the act of a Creator. The fixity of spectral lines established by current spectroscopic measurements indicates that each molecule is incapable of growth or decay, generation or destruction. . . This conformity to a physical standard, Maxwell concludes, gives a molecule 'as Sir John Herschel has well said, the essential character of a manufactured article, and precludes the idea of it's been eternal and self consistent."
The absolute standard of atoms shows they were created. Science had just learned from the astronomers that atoms are the same in every galaxy and have always been the same since the beginning of time. The don't evolve or change in the minutest. Natural forces cannot accomplish that. Maxwell connects conclusion to observation.
Herman's last chapter is Materialism and Determinism. Explains that physicist John Tyndall propounded in the 1870's 'scientific materialism'. He based this idea on molecular physics. Page 200 Herman notes: "Appealing to molecular physics Tyndall and Huxley sought to sever the ties between science and natural theology. Speaking as an authority Maxwell contested the reductionist claims of scientific naturalism. . . The emphasis on scientific progress, and the claim science was achieving emancipation from religious orthodoxy and intellectual obscurantism, suggests links between scientific naturalism and the 'positivism' of Auguste Comte."
(From Wikipedia) Comte's calling for a new social doctrine based on the sciences. Comte was a major influence on 19th-century thought, influencing the work of social thinkers such as Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and George Eliot.[3] His concept of sociologie and social evolutionism, though now outdated, set the tone for early social theorists and anthropologists.
Comte's social theories culminated in the "Religion of Humanity", which influenced the development of religious humanist and secular humanist organizations in the 19th century. Comte likewise coined the word altruisme (altruism).[4]
Tyndall describes science "as striving to 'wrest from theology, the entire domain cosmological theory.' No scheme of knowledge could 'infringe upon the domain of science', and any a system of thought that did so must 'submit to its control'. There was a claim here for intellectual leadership, it's transference to renew cultural elite: the clerisy of the secular scientific professional." Science was the new theology. This is the worship of mathematics and complete faith in human reason and human experts.
Maxwell did not agree. One line of reasoning was entropy. The science of thermodynamics discovered that disorder always increases, this was named entropy. It is a basic law of science. This means the universe started ordered and is becoming more disordered, it is running down. Therefore Maxwell stated: "This idea of a beginning is one which the physical researches of recent times have brought home to us, more than any observer of the course of scientific thought forward times would have had reason to expect." Maxwell's conclusion was just the opposite of Tyndall. The new science implied creation, a start, a beginning. We now call that the Big Bang. Maxwell was correct before his time, as usual.
On page 204: "Because proponents of materialism placed emphasis on the explanatory power of the laws of matter and motion, on molecular physics and the laws of mechanics, the irreversibility of natural processes could be shown to demonstrate the inherent limitation of the reversible laws of mechanics, and thereby to contradict the claims of philosophical materialism." The law of Entropy is a scientific reason to reject the idea that physical matter is all that exists, Maxwell believed. Note he used scientific reasoning here, not religious.
The last sentence of this book reads: "Tyndall's 'scientific materialism' stood in contradiction to molecular physics, thermodynamics, and the laws of motion." Maxwell spoke out against the misuse of new science to promote old atheistic beliefs. The last chapter covers Maxwell's defense of free will against the scientific determinism of his day. Excellent reasoning that is still valid.
This book assumes some familiarity and interest in science and the ideas that form the foundation of scientific thought. The author seems to be explaining the connection of these ideas to the modern world. He shows how Maxwell was a key scientist. However, Maxwell did not reach the same conclusions that led to the modern world view based on this new science. The positivist, materialist, mathematical, naturalist ideology of modernity is completely foreign to Maxwell's thinking. He resisted it.
I enjoyed it. Learned a lot. About three hundred footnotes. Will be glad to reread.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A good general history of Maxwell's Science
By Matt Eller
It was a good read but the fragmented nature of the book can make it hard to follow and it would be helpful to keep some small notes. This is not a biography it is about his scientific discoveries and show a connection between his ideas a very interesting read.
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