The Science and Philosophy of the "Thermodynamic School" of Evolution
This paper was written by H. T. Odum and published in 1982. It describes the relation between the maximum power principle and pulsing paradigm, and, among other things, explains how the maximum power principle is consistent with the minimum entropy production principle developed by Prigogine and Wiame. Their principle applies to systems near equilibrium where…
This paper was written by H. T. Odum and John Regnald Richardson and published in 1981. Odum, H. T., Richardson, J. R. 1981. “Power and a Pulsing Production Model.” In W. J. Mitsch, R. W. Bosserman, and J. M. Klopatek (eds), Energy and Ecological Modelling: Developments in Environmental Modeling 1. New York, NY: Elsevier Scientific…
This book was written by H. T. Odum and Elisabeth C. Odum and published in 1976. The first paragraph of the Introduction states: “Everything is based on energy. Energy is the source and control of all things, all values, and all the actions of human beings and nature. This simple truth, long known to scientists…
This paper was written by James J. Zucchetto and published in 2004. Zucchetto worked with Odum as a graduate student and in this short article he provides a reflection on Odum’s paper thirty years after it was published, which describes, among other things, how Odum used the maximum power principle to explain the development of…
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This article was written by H. T. Odum and published in 1973. In it Odum describes how energy and the maximum power principle relate to economic development. Of particular interest, he describes how, in times when there are limited available resources, the maximum power principle leads societies to shift to more efficiency and diverse processes…
This book was written by Friedrich Nietzsche and published in 1887. In it Nietzsche develops a typology of moral values that describes whether they foster the growth and flourishing of life, or they undermine its growth and are a sign of the degeneration of life (GM Preface, 3, 6). In Beyond Good and Evil, published…
This paper was written by H. T. Odum and published in 1977. It provides a detailed analysis of the relation between moral values, energy, and the maximum power principle. It describes the difference between the moral values in social systems that are growing in power and those that, as a result of a limited amount…
This paper was written by the Australian atmospheric physicist Garth William Paltridge and published in 1975. The summary of this paper states: “It is found that the mean meridional distribution of temperature, cloud cover and meridional energy flux can be predicted with extraordinary accuracy by application of a simple minimum principle to a multibox model…
Read More “Global dynamics and climate — a system of minimum entropy exchange” »
This book was written by H. T. Odum and published in 1971. It was the third book written by Odum. It provides a comprehensive picture of how his unique view of systems ecology, including the maximum power principle and his energy systems language, applies to ecological, electrical, economic, and political systems. He critically analyzes moral…
This essay was written by Ludwig Boltzmann and published in 1886. In it, Boltzmann writes: “The general struggle for existence of animal beings is therefore not a struggle for raw materials—these, for organisms, are air, water and soil, all abundantly available—nor for energy, which exists in plenty in any body in the form of heat,…