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By design: James Clerk Maxwell and the evangelical unification of science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2011

MATTHEW STANLEY
MATTHEW STANLEY
Affiliation:
Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University, 1 Washington Place, New York, NY10003, USA. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory famously unified many of the Victorian laws of physics. This essay argues that Maxwell saw a deep theological significance in the unification of physical laws. He postulated a variation on the design argument that focused on the unity of phenomena rather than Paley's emphasis on complexity. This argument of Maxwell's is shown to be connected to his particular evangelical religious views. His evangelical perspective provided encouragement for him to pursue a unified physics that supplemented his other philosophical, technical and social influences. Maxwell's version of the argument from design is also contrasted with modern ‘intelligent-design’ theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 57 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2011

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References

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2 Paley, op. cit. (1), p. 12. Paley did not think Christianity could be proven by natural theology, and thus recommended also reading his Evidences.

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5 Behe, Darwin's Black Box, op. cit. (4), pp. 39–45.

6 For example, see the decision Tammy Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District, 66 (2005).

7 Maxwell's theological views are discussed in Theerman, Paul, ‘James Clerk Maxwell and religion’, American Journal of Physics (April 1986) 54, pp. 312–317CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jordi Cat, Land, Lines, and Toys: Becoming James Clerk Maxwell (forthcoming); Thomas Torrance, ‘Christian faith and physical science in the thought of James Clerk Maxwell’, in idem, Transformation and Convergence in the Frame of Knowledge, Belfast, 1998, pp. 214–242; and Smith, Crosbie, The Science of Energy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, Chapter 11Google Scholar.

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9 Maxwell to Michael Faraday, 19 October 1861, in P.M. Harman (ed.), Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (hereafter SLP), 3 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, vol. 1, pp. 685–86.

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25 Despite his prominence, Paley's version of the design argument was certainly not the only one used in the Victorian period. For examples, see D.W. Bebbington, ‘Science and evangelical theology in Britain from Wesley to Orr’, in David N. Livingstone, D.G. Hart and Mark A. Noll (eds.), Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 120–141, 133; Jonathan Topham, ‘Science, natural theology, and evangelicalism in early nineteenth-century Scotland’, in Livingstone, Hart and Noll, op. cit., pp. 142–174; Yeo, Richard, ‘The principle of plenitude and natural theology in nineteenth-century Britain’, BJHS (1986) 19, pp. 263–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; as well as Topham's unpublished PhD dissertation, ‘An infinite variety of arguments’, Lancaster University, 1993.

26 Maxwell did make the case that science could not explain the beginning of the universe, but this was actually not distinctive of his design argument: this inability was agreed upon by agnostic and atheistic scientists such as T.H. Huxley and John Tyndall as well.

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31 Different rates of change for particular elements of science are discussed in Peter Galison, How Experiments End, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 246–57. In Galison's terms, Maxwell would say that science and religion should harmonize their ‘long-term constraints’.

32 Maxwell, ‘Aberdeen’, op. cit. (16), p. 71.

33 Brooke, John and Cantor, Geoffrey, Reconstructing Nature: The Engagement of Science and Religion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 141–246Google Scholar. Brooke, op. cit. (3), pp. 192–225. Stanley, Matthew, ‘A modern natural theology?’, Journal of Faith and Science Exchange (1999) 3, pp. 105–112Google Scholar.

34 A useful start for understanding evangelicalism is Bebbington, David W., Noll, Mark and Rawlyk, George A. (eds.), Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles, and Beyond, 1700–1990, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994Google Scholar; and Bebbington, David W., Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s, London: Unwin Hyman, 1989CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On its relation to science see Livingstone, Hart and Noll, op. cit. (25).

35 Hilton, Boyd, The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought, 1785–1865, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 8Google Scholar.

36 Bebbington, op. cit. (34), pp. 2–3.

37 Maxwell to Rev. Tayler, C.B., 8 July 1853, SLP, vol. 1, pp. 220–221Google Scholar.

38 The role of the will in Maxwell's science and religion is discussed in Stanley, Matthew, ‘The pointsman: Maxwell's demon, Victorian free will, and the boundaries of science’, Journal of the History of Ideas (2008) 69, pp. 467–491CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Maxwell's relationship with Maurice is discussed further in Stanley, op. cit. (38); idem, ‘The Working Men's College’, forthcoming; and Cat, op. cit. (7).

40 Maxwell to K.M. Dewar, 9 May 1858, in Lewis Campbell and William Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, London: Macmillan and Co., 1882, p. 311.

41 Maxwell to his wife, 23 June 1864, in Campbell and Garnett, op. cit. (40), pp. 338–339.

42 Maxwell to his wife, 22 June 1864, in Campbell and Garnett, op. cit. (40), p. 338.

43 There is an anecdote from Karl Pearson presenting Maxwell as a biblical literalist quoted in Smith, op. cit. (7), p. 307. This story is quite different from the other evidence we have about Maxwell's religious beliefs and outlook. I would infer that Pearson confused Maxwell's deep respect for scripture for a slavish literalism. Maxwell was certainly not averse to interpreting biblical passages (see Maxwell to Charles John Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, 22 November 1876, SLP, vol. 3, pp. 416–8).

44 See Livingstone, Hart and Noll, op. cit. (25), particularly Bebbington, op. cit. (25); and Topham, op. cit. (25).

45 Bebbington, op. cit. (25), pp. 120–122.

46 For example, Astore, William, Observing God: Thomas Dick, Evangelicalism, and Popular Science in Victorian Britain and America, Aldershot: Ashgate: 2001Google Scholar; Fyfe, Aileen, Science and Salvation: Evangelical Popular Science Publishing in Victorian Britain, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Bebbington, op. cit. (34), pp. 50–60, Wilson, David B., Kelvin and Stokes: A Comparative Study in Victorian Physics, Bristol: Hilger, 1987, Chapter 4Google Scholar.

47 John Hedley Brooke, ‘Introduction’, in Livingstone, Hart and Noll, op. cit. (25), pp. 23–29, 24–26. He of course cautions against taking too seriously the notion of such an archetype.

48 Brooke, John Hedley and Hookyaas, R., New Interactions between Theology and Natural Science, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1974Google Scholar.

49 Topham, op. cit. (25), p. 145.

50 Topham, op. cit. (25), pp. 165–167.

51 Bebbington, op. cit. (25), pp. 128–129.

52 Smith, op. cit. (7), pp. 18–21.

53 Hilton, op. cit. (35), p. 362.

54 Hilton, op. cit. (35), p. 21, original emphasis.

55 Hilton, op. cit. (35), pp. 21–22. Also Bebbington, op. cit. (25), p. 133.

56 Hilton discusses similar approaches to science, op. cit. (35), pp. 304–314.

57 Maxwell, ‘Aberdeen’, op. cit. (16), p. 78.

58 Maxwell, ‘Aberdeen’, op. cit. (16), p. 80; and Maxwell, , ‘Inaugural lecture at King's College, London’, SLP, vol. 1, pp. 662–674Google Scholar.

59 Maxwell, ‘Aberdeen’, op. cit. (16), p. 77, original emphasis.

60 Maxwell, ‘Aberdeen’, op. cit. (16), p. 78.

61 I am indebted to an anonymous referee for this insight.

62 Salam, Abdus, Unification of Fundamental Forces, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Lindley, David, The End of Physics, New York: Basic Books, 1993, p. 41Google Scholar; Falk, Dan, Universe on a T-Shirt, New York: Arcade Press, 2004, p. 86Google Scholar; such quotes could be easily multiplied. Morrison, Margaret, Unifying Scientific Theories, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000CrossRefGoogle Scholar, uses Maxwell's theory to examine some of the philosophical issues surrounding unification in science. For an overview of such issues see Jordi Cat, ‘The unity of science’, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2007 edition) (ed. Edward N. Zalta), accessible via http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2007/entries/scientific-unity.

64 Salam, op. cit. (62), p. 12.

65 The ether did perform important theological functions for others, however. See Geoffrey Cantor, ‘The theological significance of ethers’, in Geoffrey N. Cantor and M.J.S. Hodge, Conceptions of Ether: Studies in the History of Ether Theories 1740–1900, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 135–156.

66 John Tyndall, ‘Address’, in Report of the Forty-Fourth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Held at Belfast in August 1874, London: John Murray, 1875, pp. lxxxviii, lxvii.

67 Smith, op. cit. (7), Chapters 9, 11 and 12.

68 Smith, op. cit. (7), p. 216.

69 For more examples of how evangelical scientists of Maxwell's generation grappled with these issues see Livingstone, David, Darwin's Forgotten Defenders: The Encounter between Evangelical Theology and Evolutionary Thought, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1987Google Scholar.