Mindful at Every Step

Maxwell's name stands next to Newton and Einstein in terms of his enormous contribution to science. Most famously known by the four equations of his namesake, Maxwell brought forth an entirely new way of understanding physical phenomena. Bringing to life Faraday's research, Maxwell went further than Newton's mechanical, point-based foundation. His field models and the partial differential equations that define them allowed foray into electromagnetism and the statistical mechanics of thermodynamics, areas unexplainable by those old approaches.

Maxwell's efforts define modern physics, playing a role in each major development. First came Lorentz's marriage of material points and waves to theorize the electron. Then Einstein introduced his theory of special and general relativity — augmenting Newton's model, which he attributed to insights gained from Maxwell's field theory. The most recent gain, Quantum mechanics arrives by the hand of Einstein and Dirac as the third epiphany of theoretical physics. Still in development, Einstein intimates that quantum mechanics' maturity may be signaled by its ability to be described in the way of Maxwell: free from singularities, and satisfactorily described with fields by partial differential equations.

The nature of Maxwell's discovery and architecture of his solutions are deeply connected to the development of his psyche, approach to faith, and the environment he was a part of. The root of this study's focus is to therefore examine this shell and nucleus that surrounded and sourced Maxwell's epiphany. His work showcases scientific progress made possible by common, deep-rooted ethic, in an embracing environment, itself allowable by a content and upright society.

From his time at Edinburgh University, he adapted a philosophical detachment and caution to his method. The essence of this is seeing that even the most commanding of scientific theories is fragile, forging a directive to purge any model or analogy of its excess into its essence. Maxwell's imaginative and philosophical tendencies, when applied to his problem solving, enabled him to see beyond the pitfalls of his day's Common Sense Philosophy.

Another point of impact to Maxwell came from Sir William Hamilton, the final figure of the Common Sense philosophers. He teaches that causal and analogical thinking have to be a necessity by consequence of the limitations of the brain: all one learns of the world is gained through the senses, liable to distortion; producing knowledge that is relative rather than absolute. The dynamical tradition in physics is propelled from that understanding. Hamilton championed technical mathematical models as a fit media between nature and the human mind. Going further, he sees the constant analogy between mind and nature as a manifestation of God.

Maxwell was spiritually mission-driven, with his scientific endeavors not just in harmony with his spirituality but part of it. He was open-minded by nature of his uncompromising faith rather than despite it. Maxwell's footing in the science and spirit of things kept him well supported through turmoil regarding models of man, whether they be of natural religion or of a scientific nature.

What this produced in Maxwell was a talent that evaded mental locks and pioneered with minimal preconceptions. He had a uniquely-undeceived open mindedness, with clear-eyed separation between the naturally compromisable and the critically uncompromisable. His philosophical approach both to the natural and the spiritual meant he architected his mind and understanding in a way that holds water long past bouts of contemporary positioning.

Maxwell's defining characteristic lay in his purity of mind, in his adeptness at creating an architecture on an uncertain foundation into the invisible. Mirrored in his approach to Christianity and influenced by the philosophers of his fortuitously decorous environment, he was able to transcend physical models to find what was real. The field models of physics and the statistical enlightenment of thermodynamics changed the world with pretty much unparalleled impetus. The nascent of his enlightenment wasn't arbitrary. Just as the structure of natural philosophy allowed for progress into a new spectra of enlightenment, so the settling into purity of a human psyche must be needed to advance towards the 'perfect', with the aim of that trajectory itself ever perfecting. Maxwell always fell back to that essence of what transcends any current supposition of understanding, and that spirit moved him profitably. May we all endeavor to that end.