Copyright Nicholas Maxwell All Rights Reserved
List of Publications by Nicholas Maxwell
Books
What's Wrong With Science? Towards a People's Rational Science of Delight
and Compassion, Bran's Head Books, Frome, England, 1976, pp. xi +
260.
From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution in the Aims and Methods of
Science, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1984, pp. viii + 299, paperback
editions, 1987, 1988.
The
Comprehensibility of the Universe: A New Conception of Science,
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998, pp i-xv + 316, paperback edition,
2003. Available online: click here.
The Human World in the Physical Universe: Consciousness, Free Will and Evolution, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, 2001.
Is Science Neurotic?, Imperial College Press, London, December 2004.
From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution for Science and the Humanities, 2nd edition, new material, a new introduction and three new chapters.
Can there be Necessary Connections between Successive Events?, in The Justification of Induction, edited by R. Swinburne, Oxford University Press, London, 1974, pp. 149-74. (Reprint of paper published in 1968.)
Methodological Problems of Neuroscience, in Models of the Visual Cortex, edited by D. Rose and V.G. Dobson, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1985, pp. 11-21.
How Can We Build a Better World? In Einheit der Wissenschaften: Internationales Kolloquium der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 25-27 June 1990. J. Mittelstrass (editor). (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.), 1991, pp. 388-427.
Beyond Fapp: Three Approaches to Improving Orthodox Quantum Theory and An Experimental Test, in Bell's Theorem and the Foundations of Modern Physics, edited by A. van der Merwe, F. Selleri and G. Tarozzi, World Scientific, 1993, pp. 362-370.
Towards a New Enlightenment: What the task of Creating Civilization has to learn from the Success of Modern Science, in Academic Community: Discourse or Discord?, edited by R. Barnett, Jessica Kingsley, 1994, pp. 86-105.
A Philosopher Struggles to Understand Quantum Theory: Particle Creation and Wavepacket Reduction, in Fundamental Problems in Quantum Physics, edited by M. Ferrero and A. van der Merwe, Kluwer Academic, 1995, pp. 205-214.
Must Science Make Cosmological Assumptions if it is to be Rational?, in The Philosophy of Science: Proceedings of the Irish Philosophical Society Spring Conference, edited by T. Kelly, Irish Philosophical Society, Maynooth, 1997, pp. 98-146.
Karl Raimund Popper, in British Philosophers, 1800-2000, edited by P. Dematteis, P. Fosl and L. McHenry, Bruccoli Clark Layman, Columbia, 2002, pp. 176-194.
Art as Its Own Interpretation, in Interpretation and Its Objects: Studies in the Philosophy of Michael Krausz, edited by A. Ruvoi, Rodopi, 2003, pp. 269-83.
A Critique of Popper's Views on Scientific Method, in Popper: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, edited by A. O'Hear, Routledge, 2004; reprint of 1972 article.
Special Relativity, Time, Probabilism and Ultimate Reality, in The Ontology of Spacetime, edited by D. Dieks, Elsevier, B. V., 2006, pp. 229-245.
Learning to Live a Life of Value, in J. Merchey, ed., Living a Life of Value, Values of the Wise Press, 2006, pp. 383-395.
Practical Certainty and Cosmological Conjectures, in M. Rahnfeld, ed., Gibt es sicheres Wissen?, Leipziger Unversitätsverlag, Leipzig, 2006, pp. 44-59.
The Enlightenment Programme and Karl Popper, in Karl Popper: A Centenary Assessment. Volume 1: Life and Times, Values in a World of Facts, ed. I Jarvie, K.Milford and D. Miller, chapter 11, Ashgate, London, 2006, pp. 177-190.
The Enlightenment, Popper and Einstein, in Knowledge and Wisdom: Advances in Multiple Criteria Decision Making and Human Systems Management, Y. Shi et al. (eds.), IOS Press, 2007, pp. 131-148.
The Disastrous War against Terrorism: Violence versus Enlightenment, chapter 3 of Terrorism Issues: Threat Assessment Consequences and Prevention, ed. Albert W. Merkidze, Nova Science Publishers, New York, 2007, pp. 111-133.
Popper's Paradoxical Pursuit of Natural Philosophy in J. Shearmur & G. Stokes (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Popper, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (forthcoming).
A Priori Conjectural Knowledge in Physics, in New Perspectives
on A Priori Knowledge and
Naturalism, edited by Michael Shaffer and Michael Veber, Open Court,
(forthcoming)..
Early Papers
Three Early Papers
Physics and Common Sense, The British Journal for The Philosophy
of Science 16, 1966, pp. 295-311.
Can there be Necessary Connections between Successive Events?,
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 19, 1968, pp.
1-25.
Understanding Sensations, Australasian Journal of Philosophy
46, 1968, pp. 127-46
Three Reviews
Review of I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave (eds.) Problems in the
Philosophy of Science (1968), The British Journal for the Philosophy
of Science 20, 1969, pp. 81-3.
Clash of Ideas (review of I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave (eds.) Criticism
and the Growth of Knowledge (1970)), Nature 231, 1971, p. 269.
1971 Review of R. J. Blackwell, Discovery in the Physical Sciences
(1969), The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 22, 1971, pp.
387-9.
Towards Aim-Oriented Empiricism
A Critique of Popper's Views of Scientific Method, Philosophy
of Science 39, 1972, pp. 131-52.
The Rationality of Scientific Discovery, Part I: The Traditional Rationality
Problem, Philosophy of Science 41, 1974, pp. 123-53.
The Rationality of Scientific Discovery, Part II: An Aim Oriented Theory
of Scientific Discovery, Philosophy of Science 41, 1974, pp.
247-95.
Articulating the Aims of Science, Nature 265, 1977, p. 2.
Induction, Simplicity and Scientific Progress, Scientia 114,
1979, pp. 629-53. (Italian translation, pp. 655-74.)
From Knowledge to Wisdom
Science, Reason, Knowledge and Wisdom: A Critique of Specialism,
Inquiry 23, 1980, pp. 19-81.
From Knowledge to Wisdom, The Ethical Record, Vol. 88, No. 1,
January 1983, p. 10.
From Knowledge to Wisdom: Guiding Choices in Scientific Research.
Delivered as a lecture by invitation to the Annual Meeting of the AAAS,
New York, May, 1984, and published in Bulletin of Science, Technology
and Society 4, 1984, pp. 316-34.
From Knowledge to Wisdom: the Need for an Intellectual Revolution,
Science, Technology and Society Newsletter 21, 1985, pp. 55-63.
The Fate of the Enlightenment: Reply to Kekes, Inquiry 29,
1986, pp. 79-82.
Theoretical choices, Nature 321, No. 6067, 1986, 15-21 May,
p. 191.
Wanted: a new way of thinking, New Scientist, 14 May 1987,
p. 63.
Reply to Bidon-Chanal, Critique of Anthropology 8, 1988,
pp. 109-12.
What Kind of Inquiry Can Best Help Us Create a Good World?,
Science, Technology and Human Values 17, 1992, pp. 205-27.
What the Task of Creating Civilization has to Learn from the Success
of Modern Science: Towards a New Enlightenment, Reflections on
Higher Education 4, 1992, pp. 47-69.
Can Academic Inquiry help Humanity become Civilized?, Philosophy
Today 13, May 1993, pp. 1-3.
Science for Civilization, The Ethical Record 98, 1993, pp.
12-17.
Are there Objective Values?, The Ethical Record, vol. 101, No.
4, April 1996.
Science and the environment: A new enlightenment, Science and
Public Affairs, Spring 1997, pp. 50-56.Are There Objective Values?,
The Dalhousie Review 79, No. 3, Autumn 1999, pp. 301-317
.Are There Objective Values?, The Dalhousie Review 79, No. 3,
Autumn 1999, pp. 301-317.
Can Humanity
Learn to become Civilized? The Crisis of Science without Civilization,
Journal of Applied Philosophy 17, 2000, pp. 29-44.
Wisdom and curiosity? I remember them well, The Times Higher
Education Supplement, No. 1,488, 25 May, 2001, p. 14.
Can Humanity Learn to Create a Better World? The Crisis of Science
without Wisdom, in The Moral Universe, edited by Tom Bentley
and Daniel Stedman Jones, Demos Collection 16, 2001, pp. 149-156.
Is Science
Neurotic?, Metaphilosophy 33, no. 3, April 2002, pp. 259-299.
Two Great Problems of Learning, Teaching in Higher Education
8, January 2003, pp. 129-34.
Science, Knowledge, Wisdom and the Public Good, Scientists
for Global Responsibility Newsletter 26, February 2003, pp. 7-9.
Do
Philosophers Love Wisdom?, The Philosophers' Magazine, Issue
22, 2nd quarter, 2003, pp. 22-4.
In Defence
of Seeking Wisdom, Metaphilosophy 35, October 2004.
Is Science Neurotic?, Philosophy Now, Issue 51, June/July, 2005,
pp. 30-33.
Science under Attack, The Philosopher's Magazine, Issue 31, 3rd
Quarter 2005, pp. 37-41.
Philosophy for Five-Year-Olds, Learning for Democracy, Vol. 1,
No. 2, 2005, pp. 71-77.
A Revolution
for Science and the Humanities: From Knowledge to Wisdom, Dialogue
and Universalism, Vol. XV, No. 1-2, 2005, pp. 29-57.
Knowledge to Wisdom: We
Need a Revolution, Philosophia, 34, 2006, pp. 377-378.
Can the World Learn Wisdom?, Solidarity, Sustainability, and Non-Violence, vol. 3,
no. 4, April 2007.
Wisdom in the university: editorial, with Ronald Barnett, London Review of Education, vol. 5, no. 2, 2007, pp. 95-6.
From Knowledge to Wisdom: The Need for an Academic Revolution, London Review of Education, vol. 5, no. 2, 2007, pp. 97-115.
The road to wisdom, New Statesman, vol. 137, no. 4880, 21 January 2008, p. 50.
Are Philosophers Responsible for Global Warming?, Philosophy Now, issue 65, January/February 2008, pp. 12-13.
Aim-Oriented Empiricism
Induction and Scientific Realism: Einstein versus van Fraassen. Part
One: How to Solve the Problem of Induction, The British Journal
for the Philosophy of Science 44, 1993, pp. 61-79.
Induction and Scientific Realism: Einstein versus van Fraassen. Part
Two: Aim-Oriented Empiricism and Scientific Essentialism, The British
Journal for the Philosophy of Science 44, 1993, pp. 81-101.
Induction and Scientific Realism: Einstein versus van Fraassen. Part
Three: Einstein, Aim-Oriented Empiricism and the Discovery of Special
and General Relativity, The British Journal for the Philosophy
of Science 44, 1993, pp. 275-305.
Is the Universe Comprehensible?, The Ethical Record, vol. 192,
No. 3, March 1998, pp. 3-6.
Has Science Established that the Universe is Comprehensible?, Cogito
13, 1999, pp. 139-145.
A new conception of science, Physics World 13, No. 8, 2000,
pp. 17-18.
Weinert's Review of 'The Comprehensibility of the Universe', Philosophy
76, 2001, pp. 297-303.
Observation, meaning and theory, Times Higher Education Supplement,
no. 1,427, 17 March, 2000, p. 30.
The Need for a Revolution in the Philosophy of Science, Journal
for General Philosophy of Science 33, 2002, pp. 259-299.
Popper,
Kuhn, Lakatos and Aim-Oriented Empiricism, Philosophia 32,
nos. 1-4, May 2005, pp. 181-239.
The Human World/Physical Universe Problem
The Evolution of Consciousness, The Ethical Record, Vol. 100,
No. 4, April 1995, pp. 16-19.
The Mind-Body Problem and Explanatory Dualism, Philosophy 75,
2000, pp. 49-71.
Cutting God in Half, Philosophy Now 35, March/April 2002,
pp. 22-25.
Science and meaning: why physics can coexist with consciousness,
The Philosophers' Magazine 18, Spring 2002, pp. 15-16.
Three Philosophical Problems about Consciousness, Ethical Record
107, No. 4, May 2002, pp. 3-11.
Science versus Realization of Value, Not Determinism versus Choice,
Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2005, pp. 53-58.
Quantum Theory
A New Look at the Quantum Mechanical Problem of Measurement, American
Journal of Physics 40, 1972, pp. 1431-5.
Alpha Particle Emission and the Orthodox Interpretation of Quantum
Mechanics, Physics Letters 43A, 1973, pp. 29-30.
The Problem of Measurement - Real or Imaginary?, American Journal
of Physics 41, 1973, pp. 1022-5.
Does the Minimal Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Resolve
the Measurement Problem?, Methodology and Science 8, 1975,
pp. 84-101.
Towards a Micro Realistic Version of Quantum Mechanics, Part I,
Foundations of Physics 6, 1976, pp. 275-92.
Towards a Micro Realistic Version of Quantum Mechanics, Part II,
Foundations of Physics 6, 1976, pp. 661-76.
Instead of Particles and Fields: A Micro Realistic Quantum "Smearon"
Theory, Foundations of Physics 12, 1982, pp. 607-31.
Are Probabilism and Special Relativity Incompatible?, Philosophy
of Science 52, 1985, pp. 23-44.
Quantum Propensiton Theory: A testable Resolution of the Wave/Particle
Dilemma, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 39,
1988, pp. 1-50.
Are Probabilism and Special Relativity Compatible?, Philosophy
of Science 55, 1988, pp. 640-5.
Does Orthodox Quantum Theory Undermine, or Support, Scientific Realism?,
The Philosophical Quarterly 43, 1993, pp. 139-57.
On Relativity Theory and Openness of the Future: A Reply, Philosophy
of Science 60, 1993, pp. 341-348.
Particle Creation as the Quantum Condition for Probabilistic Events
to Occur, Physics Letters A 187, 1994, pp. 351-355.
Does Probabilism
Solve the Great Quantum Mystery?, Theoria, vol. 19/3, no. 51,
2004, pp. 321-336.
Miscellaneous
Mental blocks and the force of habit: review of Paradigms and Barriers
by H. Margolis, Times Higher Education Supplement, No. 1104, 31
December, 1993, p. 24.
Observation, meaning and theory, review of For and against Method
by I. Lakatos and P. Feyerabend, Times Higher Education Supplement,
no. 1,427, 17 March, 2000, p. 30.
1. The Best Short Summary of From Knowledge to Wisdom:.
Can Humanity Learn to Become Civilized? The Crisis of Science without
Civilization, published in Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol.
17, 2000, pp 29-44. This can be found as "Target Article 28"
of the Karl Jaspers Forum, edited by Herbert F. J. Muller at McGill University.
In addition to the article, there are criticisms of it, by Lewis
Wolpert, David Miller and others, and my replies.
See also:
Do Philosophers Love Wisdom?, Philosophers' Magazine, Spring 2003.
2.Two of my articles are to be found at "the
philosophy site of rafe champion": Click "Guest Room"
and that will take you to Do
We Need an Academic Revolution? (summary of my argument), and
to a paper arguing that aim-oriented empiricism is an improvement over
the views of Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos: Popper,
Kuhn, Lakatos and Aim-Oriented Empiricism.
3. PhilSci Archive
a. Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos and Aim-Oriented Empiricism, Phil-Sci Archive, 29 April 2001.
b. Simplicity, Phil-Sci Archive, 29 April 2001.
c. Scientific Metaphysics, Phil-Sci Archive, 21 March 2004.
d. Karl Raimund Popper, PhilSci Archive, 12 April 2004.
e. Does Probabilism Solve the Great Quantum Mystery?, PhilSci Archive, 12 April 2004.
f. Special
Relativity, Time, Probabilism, and Ultimate Reality PhilSci Archive
10 May 2004.
g. Non-Empirical Requirements Scientific Theories Must Satisfy: Simplicity, Unification, Explanation, Beauty PhilSci Archive 22 May 2004.
h. Comprehensibility rather than Beauty 28 May 2004
i. In Defense of Seeking Wisdom 3 August 2004
j. A Revolution for Science and the Humanities: From Knowledge to Wisdom PhilSci Archive 10 August 2004
k. The
Enlightenment, Popper and Einstein
1 March 2005
l. A Mug's Game? Solving the Problem of Induction with Metaphysical Presuppostions 12 March 2005
m. Three
Philosophical Problems about Consciousness and Their Possible Resolution
21 March 2005.
n. Practical Certainty and Cosmological Conjectures 14 April 2005.
o. Is Science Neurotic?, Metaphilosophy 33, no. 3, April 2002, pp. 259-299.
p. The Need for a Revolution in the Philosophy of Science, Journal for General Philosophy of Science 33, 2002, pp. 381-408.
q. Popper's Paradoxical Pursuit of Natural Philosophy in J. Shearmur & G. Stokes (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Popper, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Back to Top
Broadcasts
2000
1. 31 Jan 'Start the Week', chaired by Jeremy Paxman, BBC Radio 4, discussion
of "Can Humanity Learn to Become Civilized?", Journal of Applied
Philosophy 17, 2000, pp. 29-44.
2. 11 Oct.: 'The Commission', chaired by Nick Ross on BBC 4; a contribution
to "Anti-Science Culture".
2006
1. 21 Feb: 'Wisdom: We Need a Revolution'. Talk with Jason Merchey and Cop Macdonald, Values and Ethics: From Living Room to Boardroom, World Talk Radio.
2. 15 Aug.: 'The Ideas, Words, and Influence of Albert Einstein'. Talk with Jason Merchey, Values and Ethics: From Living Room to Boardroom, World Talk Radio.
2008
1. 11 March: Interview about From Knowledge to Wisdom, 2nd edition, on "Weekly Signals", broadcast on KUCI, a Californian Radio Station.
2. 18 June: How to Think About Science, Episode 24. An interview with David Cayley about my work on the Ideas Programme, broadcast by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Awaiting Publication
Does Science make Metaphysical Assumptions?
The Problem of Unity in Theoretical Physics
Comprehensibility rather than Beauty
Can Academic Inquiry Help Humanity Create a Civilized World? The Need for an Academic Revolution
Simplicity
The Enlightenment Programme and Karl Popper
Atomistic versus Cosmic Physicalism
A Mug's Game?
Solving the Problem of Induction with Metaphysical Presuppositions
Three Philosophical Problems about Consciousness and their Possible Solution
