In philosophical thermodynamics, energetic imperative is an ethics theory on how to live which states which states, based on the law of conservation of energy or generally the science of energetics:


According to another variation, his energetic imperative statement, which he considered to be the foundation of his naturphilosophie (natural philosophy), constructed on the basis of thermodynamics and positivism, was: [2]


This theory was outlined in 1912 by German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald who wrote an entire book on the subject. [1] It may have been based on German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s 1785 categorical imperative and is similar to American physicist Robert Lindsay's 1959 thermodynamic imperative and to Robert Clark's 1997 entropy-based global imperative.

References
1. Kragh, Helge. (2008). Entropic Creation: Religious Contexts of Thermodynamics and Cosmology, (pg. 229). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
2. (a) Wilhelm Ostwald: the “Bruke” (Bridge) and other Connections to Other Bibliographic Activities at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (PDF), 9-pages, by Thomas Hapke, [ChemHeritage.org].
(b) Holt, N.R. (1970). "A Note on Wilhelm Ostwald's Energism", Isis, 61, pgs. 368-89, (esp. 388).