In human thermodynamics, sociological thermodynamics or "socio-thermodynamics" is the study, analysis, and prediction of the behavior of human social systems according to the laws of thermodynamics, particularly those related to energy and entropy. Human societies can be analyzed from a number of thermodynamic perspectives. From a hierarchical thermodynamics point of view, societies can be modeled using a Gibbs free energy perspective in relation to a systems-within-systems approach. [1] Divisions and separations in society can also be understood from a phase-diagram perspective. [2] Those who have done work in this area include Russian physical chemist Georgi Gladyshev and German physicist Ingo Müller. Others tend to model social systems from a "far-from-equilibrium" dissipative structure point of view, along the lines of Ilya Prigogine's thermodynamics. [3] One concept, loosely developed in this field, is social entropy.

In 1972 book Politics in Science, author Marlan Blissett devoted a chapter to the “laws of social thermodynamics”. [4]

Social thermodynamics can be approached from a number of directions. American anthropologist Eugene Ruyle, who has spent over forty-years investigating this topic, for instance, defines "social thermodynamics" as the combination of ecological energetics with Marx's labor theory of value. [5]

Objections to
In 1972, in a dismissal of the idea of any type of social thermodynamics, American economist Paul Samuelson concluded: [6]

"the sign of a half-baked speculator in the social sciences is his search for something in the social system that corresponds to the physicist's notion of entropy."

References
1. (a) Gladyshev, Georgi, P. (1997). Thermodynamic Theory of the Evolution of Living Beings. Commack, New York: Nova Science Publishers.
(b) Gladyshev, Georgi, P. (1978). "On the Thermodynamics of Biological Evolution", Journal of Theoretical Biology, Vol. 75, Issue 4, Dec 21, pp. 425-441.
2. (a) Müller, Ingo. (2002). Socio-thermodynamics – Integration and Segregation in a Population, P: Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics 14, 384-404, 2002.
(b) Müller, Ingo and Weiss, Wolf. (2005). Entropy and Energy - a Universal Competition ("Socio-thermodynamics - Integration and Segregation in a Population", ch. 20).Germany: Springer.
3. The Phenomenology of Dissipative Structures - David M. Keirsey
4. Blissett, Marlan. (1972). Politics in Science, (pg. 25). Little, Brown.
5. Eugene Edward Ruyle - Curriculum Vitae (Ongoing research projects: "Social Thermodynamics"), 2006.
6. Samuelson, Paul. (1972). The Collected Scientific Papers (pg. 450). Vol. 3, ed. R. Merton. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.


Further reading

• Stepanic, Josip Jr., Stefancic, Hrvoje, Zebec, Mislav Stejepan, and Perackovic, Kresimir. (2000). "Approach to a Quantitative Description of Social Systems based on Thermodynamic Formalism" (PDF). Journal of Entropy, 2, 98-105.
• Scafetta, Nicola, Hamilton, Patti, and Grigolini, Paolo. (2001). "The Thermodynamics of Social Processes: the Teen Birth Phenomenon" (PDF). Fractals, Vol. 9, No. 2, 193-208.
• Stepanic, Josip. (2004). "Social Equivalent of Free Energy", Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 2(1), 53-60.
• Minkes, Jürgen. (2000). “Society as a Many Particle System” (PDF), Physics Department, University of Paderborn.
• Lipkowski, Mil. (1979). "The Social Thermodynamics of Ilya Prigogine." Chemical and Engineering News, April 16.

External links

• Thermodynamic Principles for Social Sciences - an Introduction (Douglas R. White)