In human thermodynamics, philosophical thermodynamics can be considered as 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] In another sense, philosophical thermodynamics can be thought of as the 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] One of the first books in this area was French physicist Gustave-Adolphe Hirn's 1869 Philosophical Implications of the Theory of Thermodynamics.

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] The term entropology, defined as the name sometimes given to thermodynamics without differential equations, for instance, was coined by French anthropologist and philosopher Claude Lévi-Strauss in his 1955 book Tristes tropiques (Sad Tropics). [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]

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), (preview), (pgs. 518, 664). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.


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.