“My colleague Paul Glansdorff and I have investigated the problem as to if the results of near-equilibrium can be extrapolated to those of far-from-equilibrium situations and have arrived at a surprising conclusion: Contrary to what happens at equilibrium, or near equilibrium, systems far from equilibrium do not conform to any minimum principle that is valid for functions of free energy or entropy production.”
Prigogine’s theory, in short, is a thermodynamics-masquerading Trojan horse, with Henri Bergson’s creative evolution inside, thereby letting “spirituality” into the house of science. |
Schematic of Prigogine's 1976 "dissipative structures" model applied to explain social systems. [16] |
See main: Sociological thermodynamicsIn his various works, Progogine has alluded to the idea that his theories apply to sociology and society. In the 1979 article "The Social Thermodynamics of Ilya Prigogine", American chemist and science writer Wil Lepkowski argued that the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of Prigogine could lead to new ways of understanding social processes. [12]
Prigogine's 1984 book Order Out of Chaos, his most popular treatise, in which he presents a layperson's view of his theory. |
See main: Life thermodynamicsPrigogine, curiously, had a dismal view of classical thermodynamics in its applicability to explain the phenomenon of life and evolution? To cite one example, in 1955 Prigogine stated: [6]
“The fact that during growth living organisms actually show a decrease of entropy production during evolution up to the stationary state … also, the fact that their organization generally increases during this evolution [which] corresponds to the decrease of entropy as studied [leads one to puzzle as to why] the behavior of living organisms has always seemed so strange from the point of view of classical thermodynamics; that the applicability of thermodynamics to such systems has often been questioned. One may say that from the point of view of the thermodynamics of open and stationary systems [nonequilibrium thermodynamics] a much better understanding of their principal features is obtained.”
“Thermodynamic equilibrium may be characterized by the minimum of the Helmholtz free energy defined usually by: F = E – TS. Are most types of ‘organisations’ around us of this nature? It is enough to ask such a question to see that the answer is negative. Obviously in a town, in a living system, we have a quite different type of functional order. To obtain a thermodynamic theory for this type of structure we have to show that that non-equilibrium may be a source of order. Irreversible processes may lead to a new type of dynamic states of matter which I have called ‘dissipative structures’.”
“To their credit, there are a few evolutionists (though apparently very few) who recognize the critical nature of the problem [of the second law] and who are trying to solve it.”
“Only in a system that is close to equilibrium can the differential of this function of state of the system (entropy) be considered to be a full one, to an acceptable approximation. However, all the aforesaid is usually underestimated; therefore, many works [by Prigogine] on nonequilibrium thermodynamics, especially the thermodynamics of systems that are far from equilibrium, remain a faint ‘future hope.’ Some of these works, I daresay, are mere mathematically trimmed fantasies useless for real life.”— Georgi Gladyshev (2001), “The Second Law of Thermodynamics and the Evolution of Living Systems” (Ѻ)
“I don’t know of a single phenomenon [Prigogine] has explained.”— Pierre Hohenberg (c.1994) [20]
“Thermodynamic equilibrium may be characterized by the minimum of the Helmholtz free energy defined usually by: F = E – TS. Are most types of ‘organisations’ around us of this nature? It is enough to ask such a question to see that the answer is negative. Obviously in a town, in a living system, we have a quite different type of functional order. To obtain a thermodynamic theory for this type of structure we have to show that that non-equilibrium may be a source of order. Irreversible processes may lead to a new type of dynamic states of matter which I have called ‘dissipative structures’.”— Ilya Prigogine (1977), Nobel Lecture: “Time, Structure and Fluctuations”
“When I was in law school, I learned that one should not use words like "clearly" to bolster an argument. Use of such words is a dead give-away that the point is anything but clear.”
“Two groups of important discoveries nourish the thinking of [post Lamarckian-Darwinian] biologists today. For the one part, the astonishing progress since Fritz Lipmann in the domain of bioenergetics and for the other, the impetus which thermodynamics has assumed under the fertile impulse of the genius of Prigogine.”— Ernest Schoffeniels (1973), Anti-Chance (pg. xi)
“We are led, therefore, to regard energy dissipation as the ‘driving force’ of evolution.”— Ilya Prigogine (1977), Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems (pgs. 441-42); cited by Richard Adams (1988) in The Eighth Day (pg. 66)
“According to my mother, I was able to read musical scores before I read printed words.”— Ilya Prigogine (c.1990) (Ѻ)
“The irreversibility of time is the mechanism that brings order out of chaos.”— Ilya Prigogine (c.1980) (Ѻ)
“The main character of any living system is openness.”— Ilya Prigogine (c.1980) (Ѻ)
“I see how you can do this with molecules, but I don’t see how you can do it with species. I don’t understand the extrapolation.”— Ilya Prigogine (c.1981), comment to Daniel Brooks, cited by Roger Lewin (1982), on his Brooks-Wiley theory [22]