The Science and Philosophy of the "Thermodynamic School" of Evolution
Charlie Hall and Timothy McWhirter are presenting two paper at this conference. The first one is entitled “Energy and Evolution: The Systems Approach.” It will be presented Wednesday, August 5, between 1:00 and 2:30. The second paper is entitled “The Evolution of Power and Entropy Production.” It will be presented Friday, August 7th, at 12:30…
This is a presentation for the International Society of Systems Sciences that summaries a book project that Charles Hall and Timothy McWhirter are working on presently.
This chapter was written by Roderick C. Dewar and Amos Maritan and published in 2014. The abstract states what follows. Maximum entropy production (MaxEP) is a conjectured selection criterion for the stationary states of non-equilibrium systems. In the absence of a firm theoretical basis, MaxEP has largely been applied in an ad hoc manner. Consequently…
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This paper was written by E. D. Schneider and J. J. Kay and published in 1994. The title provides a clear view of the focus of the paper. One of the many interesting things about this paper is that the authors make this case regarding life and the second law without utilizing the concept of…
Read More “Life as a Manifestation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics” »
This paper was written by S. N. Salthe and published in 2010. It is one of the few papers that explains and compares the maximum power principle and the maximum entropy production principle. Salthe makes a number of interesting and important points; for example, he suggests that these principles can explain the development of both abiotic…
Read More “Maximum Power and Maximum Entropy Production: Finalities in Nature” »
This book was written by Timothy McWhirter and published in 2025. It examines the relation between the maximum power principle developed by Alfred Lotka and H. T. Odum and the concept of the will to power developed by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It discusses the work of the scientists and philosophers that influenced the…
This article was written by Joseph J. Vallino and published in 2010. It was included in a special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Science, (Volume 365, Issue 1545) that focused on the principle of maximum entropy production in ecological and environmental systems. Vallino argues that there is a difference between…
This article was written by Iris Fry and published in 1995. She further developed these ideas in a book, Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview, which was published in 2000. In the paper, she argues that what she calls the “thermodynamic school” of evolution provides a “law-governed” view of the “continuous…
Read More “Evolution in Thermodynamic Perspective: A Historical and Philosophical Angle” »
This paper was written by Elijah Thimsen and published in 2024. It is based on research he did on data from the Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments in order to determine how the rate of sunlight absorbed by the earth and the rate of global entropy production have evolved…
Read More “Planetary Energy Flow and Entropy Production Rate by Earth from 2002 to 2023” »
This paper was written by Timothy M. Lenton (pictured), Peter-Paul Pichler, and Helga Weiz and published in 2016. The abstract states: “Major revolutions in energy capture have occurred in both Earth and human history, with each transition resulting in higher energy input, altered material cycles and major consequences for the internal organization of the respective…
Read More “Revolutions in energy input and material cycling in earth history and human history” »