Dissertation Information for Kevin Thomas LambertNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: Mind over matter: Language, mathematics, and electromagnetism in nineteenth century Britain Abstract: In this dissertation I have two goals. On the one hand, I show how discussions of language, mathematics and scientific method participated in the larger transformations of mid-Victorian culture and society. On the other, I look at how specific mathematical practices were developed in this social and cultural environment and how the problem of interpretation was a constant concern for British mathematics in this period, as it would continue to be for electromagnetic theory later in the century. The second half of the dissertation concentrates on the work of two individuals: a mathematician, George Boole; and a physicist, James Clerk Maxwell. I show how they used their cultural environment to develop scientific and mathematical methods that addressed the problem of the use and meaning of mathematical reasoning. I will also argue that Maxwell's use of mathematics in the development of his electromagnetic theory was directly related to Boole's work on mathematical logic through their shared belief that mathematics and the laws of nature were connected in a way that had something to do with the structure of the human mind. |
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