In
human thermodynamics,
history thermodynamics is the
science or subset of history that uses
thermodynamic logic and laws to better understand both the past and future of the human race. [1] The following 1918 quote by American historian William Thayer give an excellent surmise of this field: [5]
“The time may come when human affairs may be described no longer by words and sentences, but by a system of symbols or notation similar to those used in algebra or chemistry … then it may be possible to invent a common formula for thermodynamics and history.”
OverviewThe basic outline of history science based on the first two
laws of thermodynamics was conceived in 1895 by American historian and lawyer
Brooks Adams and in 1910 by his brother American historian
Henry Adams in his
Letter to the American Teachers of History. [2] In commentary on Adams' proposal for a thermodynamic analysis of history, Adams' friend American psychologist
William James, the forefunner to the development of
William James Sidis, argued against determinism and physicalism stating that
“the ‘second law’ is wholly irrelevant to ‘history’—save that it sets a terminus—for history is the course of things before the terminus.” [4] The use of
statistical thermodynamics to conceive of or predict humankind's future, was outlined in 1952 by English physicist
Charles Galton Darwin in his book
The Next Million Years. [3]
Reference1.
Chin, Lawrence. (2006). A Thermodynamic Interpretation of History - a theory of the cosmic origins of power, gender relation, and modernity. A Working Paper.2. (a) Adams, Henry. (1910).
A Letter to American Teachers of History, (pg. 199).
Google Books, Scanned PDF. Washington. (b) Burich, Keith R. (1987). “
Henry Adams, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and the Course of History”. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep.), pp. 467-482.3. Darwin, Charles G. (1952).
The Next Million Years (pg. 26), London: Rupert Hart-Davis.
4. Browning, Don S. (1980). Pluralism and Personality: William James and Some Contemporary Cultures of Psychology, (pg. 35). Bucknell University Press.
5. Thayer, William R. (1921). “Vagaries of Historians”
. Annual Report of the American Historical Association (pgs. 77-88, esp.
pgs. 80-84)
. G.P.O.