In hmolscience, Julian Huxley (1887-1975) was an English evolutionary biologist noted for his supposed view that the second law is inoperable in the case of evolution and for his 1940 discussion of the so-called experimental bias problem of the physical sociologist. See main: Huxley genealogyJulian Huxley's grandfather was Thomas Huxley, coiner of the term social chemistry, and his brother was Aldous Huxley, noted for his use of entropy in literature.
“While the universe of physics is running down; the universe of evolution is winding up … on this planet the second law of thermodynamics is now not working, and of course [this] opens up the possibility that there may be agencies operating in the universe supplying energy which would enable the whole cosmos to behave in an anti-entropic manner.”
“The second law of thermodynamics is entropic, tending towards a decrease in organization and to ultimate frozen immobility.”
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| A retort (or social retort) depiction of Huxley’s 1940 so-called social retort problem, namely his assertion that “man cannot investigate man” by the methods of physical science because he is one of the elements of the physical system and therein inherently biasing his results. |
“… experiment for one fundamental reason—namely, that in the one case the investigator is outside his material, in the other he is not. Man cannot investigate man by the same methods he investigates external nature. He can use the methods of natural science to investigate certain aspects of man—the structure and …”
“One distinguished scientist [Julian Huxley] has urged that a basic difference between the physical and the social sciences is that in the latter ‘the investigator is inside instead of outside his material.’ This is supposed to be self-evident and require no analysis.”
