You prompted me to read the actual essay. It was considerably more interesting than the comments here would have suggested; which is not a surprise, given it was penned by Freeman Dyson.
His insight that Maxwell's contemporaries lacked even the language to fully describe what a transformative idea he had is acutely interesting. Once again language both shapes and traps thinking.
He makes the same point with quantum mechanics as well - that we're constrained by not having the proper language to describe the most fundamental behaviour. I think it's fair to say that point still stands today.
His insight that Maxwell's contemporaries lacked even the language to fully describe what a transformative idea he had is acutely interesting. Once again language both shapes and traps thinking.
He makes the same point with quantum mechanics as well - that we're constrained by not having the proper language to describe the most fundamental behaviour. I think it's fair to say that point still stands today.