Nicholas Maxwell

Nicholas Maxwell was a British philosopher.
Maxwell taught philosophy of science at University College London, where he later was an Emeritus Reader. In 2003 he founded Friends of Wisdom. He has published fifteen books. He has published over eighty papers in scientific and philosophical journals on problems that range from consciousness, free will, value, and art to the rationality of science, simplicity, scientific realism, explanation, time and quantum theory. Maxwell died in January 2025, at the age of 87.

Philosophical contribution

Maxwell's work has been devoted to tackling two fundamental interlinked problems:-

Problem 1: How can we understand our human world, embedded as it is within the physical universe, in such a way that justice is done both to the richness, meaning and value of human life on the one hand, and to what modern science tells us about the physical universe on the other hand?

Problem 2: What ought to be the overall aims and methods of science, and of academic inquiry more generally, granted that the basic task is to help humanity achieve what is of value – a more civilised world – by cooperatively rational means ?
In connection with Problem 1, Maxwell has put forward a version of the double-aspect theory, according to which experiential and physical features of things both exist.
In connection with Problem 2, Maxwell argues that the problematic aims of science, and of academic inquiry more generally, need much more honest and critical attention than they have received so far.

Criticism

Maxwell's books have been widely reviewed. His work is discussed by twelve scholars in Science and the Pursuit of Wisdom, edited by Leemon McHenry.
David Miller and Maxwell had a short exchange about Aim Oriented Empiricism, which was the central thesis of Maxwell's The Comprehensibility of The Universe.

Publications

1976, What’s Wrong With Science?, Bran's Head Books, Hayes, Middlesex.
1984, From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution in the Aims and Methods of Science, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
1998, ', Oxford University Press, Oxford.
2001, ', Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham.
2004, ', Imperial College Press, London.
2007, ', 2nd edition, revised and enlarged, Pentire Press, London.
2008, ed., with R. Barnett, Wisdom in the University, Routledge, London.
2009, ', 2nd edition, revised with new preface, Pentire Press, London.
2009, L. McHenry, ed., Science and the Pursuit of Wisdom: Studies in the Philosophy of Nicholas Maxwell, Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt.
2010, ', Pentire Press, London.
2014, ', Imprint Academic, Exeter.
2014, ', Imprint Academic, Exeter.
2016, ', Rounded Globe. Free online.
2017, ' McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal
2017, ', Paragon House, St. Paul, MN.
2017, ', UCL Press, London.
2019, ', Springer, Cham, Switzerland.
2019, ', Springer, Cham, Switzerland.
2020, ', McGill-Queen's University Press, Canada.
2021, ', World Scientific, Singapore.