In sociology, ethics refers to the principles of conduct governing an individual or group. Ethics, said another way, refers a system of moral values or to a guiding philosophy. It is often said to be the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. [1]

Thermodynamics
A number of people have attempted to understand ethics from a thermodynamics point of view. One of the first to clearly enunciate this was English physical chemist Frederick Soddy, who in 1922 stated very clearly that one can understand what is ethical by studying the operation of the steam engine: [2]

“[The phenomenon of life] derives the whole of its physical energy or power not from anything self-contained in living matter, but solely from the inanimate world. It is dependent for all necessities of its physical continuance upon the principles of the steam engine. The principles of ethics of all human conventions must not run counter to those thermodynamics.”

Many attempt to derive a system of ethics based solely on the second law. One example is the idea of “entropy ethics”, a term coined in 1985 by American educator Dick Hammond: [3]

“[After] religions [were expelled] form public schools, out went instructions in ethics too, creating a void that we now have: what the entropy ethic can do for education is help fill that void.”

Another example of this type of second law ethics logic is the work of American science educator Fred Fox. [4] The 1999 work of Italian philosopher Luciano Floridi argues along the same theme, albeit in the framework of information theory.

References
1. Ethics – Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 2000.
2. Soddy, Frederick. (1922). Cartesian Economics. London: Hendersons.
3. Hammond, Dick K. (2005). The Human System from Entropy to Ethics. (pg. vii). Publisher: Dick Hammond.
4. Fox, Fred W. (1976). “The Recolored Mentality: Ethical Lessons From Science”, The Science Teacher, May, pgs. 25-30.
5. Floridi, Luciano and Sanders, J.W. (1999). “Entropy as Evil in Information Ethics”, Etica & Politica, special issue on Computer Ethics, 1.2. Oxford University, Computing Laboratory, Programming Research Group Technical Report TR-5-00.

Further reading
● Miller, Alan S. (1991). Gaia Connections: an Introduction to Ecology, Ecoethics, and Economics (section: Biological Ethics and Thermodynamics, pgs. 86-89). Rowman and Littlefield.

External links
● Ethics – Wikipedia.