Maxwell’s Dynamical Philosophy: An Early Solution to the Problem of a Discrepancy between Particles and Waves

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Author(s)

Salvo D’Agostino

Affiliation(s)

University of Roma La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.

ABSTRACT

J. C. Maxwell contributed to an important philosophy of science, the so-called Dynamical Philosophy and Dynamical Approach to his theories. He meant it by a Dynamical Approach a theory of motions of the moving particle that could dispense with the detailed mechanism of motion. In order to develop this type of approach, he applied a modified form of Lagrange's equations in his 1865 essay “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field” and in his master opus “A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism”. But an attentive historical research has also realized that he used an analogous approach in his contribution to a kinetic theory of gases, the well known statistical law of velocities.

KEYWORDS

Particles and Waves, J. C. Maxwell

Cite this paper

D’Agostino, S. (2014) Maxwell’s Dynamical Philosophy: An Early Solution to the Problem of a Discrepancy between Particles and Waves. Advances in Historical Studies, 3, 123-129. doi: 10.4236/ahs.2014.33012. 

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