
A rendition of Gustave Hirn in 1868 ruminating on philosophical thermodynamics, namely on implications of thermodynamics on philosophy and metaphysics. [7]

A rendition of Gustave Hirn in 1868 ruminating on philosophical thermodynamics, namely on implications of thermodynamics on philosophy and metaphysics. [7]

In human thermodynamics, philosophical thermodynamics is the study of the thermodynamic questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic). [1]

Overview
In 1869, French physicist Gustave Hirn published Philosophical Implications of Thermodynamics, on what thermodynamics has to say about philosophical and metaphysical questions.

In 1955, French anthropologist and philosopher Claude Lévi-Strauss, in his Tristes tropiques (Sad Tropics), coined the term entropology, as the name sometimes given to thermodynamics without differential equations. [4]

In 1987, American writer Elizabeth Porteus situated her Twentieth Century Philosophy of life, happiness, child rearing, and integrated work around the second law of thermodynamics. [5]

In 2002, American physicist Jack Hokikian state the following relation between philosophy and thermodynamics: [6]

“[Long ago] science and philosophy were unified in their goal: to discover the truth about how nature works, [in recent years, however] science has been taken over by technology—applied science—but technology does not provide us with any principles of nature, principles needed to derive a practical philosophy of life—for this we have to turn to the laws of thermodynamics.”

In a sense, philosophical thermodynamics is human thermodynamic analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs as well as search for a general thermodynamic understanding of values and reality by chiefly quantitative means. [2]

Core concepts in philosophical thermodynamics include: time, meaning, purpose, eschatology (e.g. heat death), among others. Of the laws of thermodynamics, according to thermodynamicist Myron Kaufman, the second law has important philosophical implications. [3]

References
1. Quinton, Anthony; ed. Ted Honderich (1996). "Philosophy". The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.
2. Philosophy (definition, with thermodynamic modification) – Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, CD-ROM, Version 2.5, 2000.
3. Kaufman, Myron. (2002). Principles of Thermodynamics, (pg. 78). CRC Press.
4. Perrot, Pierre. (1998). A to Z of Thermodynamics, (pg. 98). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. (a) Porteus, Elizabeth, D. (1987). My Twentieth Century Philosophy. New York: Carlton Press, Inc.
(b) Dole, Elizabeth P. (2005). “Life, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and Happiness”, Journal of Human Thermodynamics, Vol. 1, Issue 3. (pg. 21-26). October. Chicago: Institute of Human Thermodynamics.
(c) Porteus, Elizabeth P. (1999). "The Porteus Philosophy of Life: The Secret of Happiness" (Nov. 14). Hawaii: Porteus Family Publishing.
(d) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume Two) (pgs. 518, 664). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
6. Hokikian, Jack. (2002). The Science of Disorder: Understanding the Complexity, Uncertainty, and Pollution in Our World (pg. xiv). Los Feliz Publishing.
7. Hirn, Gustave. (1868).Metaphysical and Philosophical Implications of Thermodynamics: A Fundamental Analysis of the Universe (Métaphysique et conséquences philosophiques de la thermodynamique: l'analyse fondamentale de l'univers). Paris: Gauthier-Villars.

Further reading
● Ropolyi, L. & Martinas, K. (1991). Thermodynamics: History and Philosophy - Facts, Trends, Debates Veszprem, Hungary 23-28 July 1990. World Scientific Pub. Co. Inc.
● Ernst, Gerhard and Huttemann, Andreas. (2010). Time, Chance, and Reduction: Philosophical Aspects of Statistical Mechanics. Cambridge University Press.