
A 2012 image (Ѻ) of the Eddington rule of theories in science.

A 2012 image (Ѻ) of the Eddington rule of theories in science.

In science, Eddington rule is the following logic:

“If your theory does not conform to the second law, you will collapse in deepest humiliation.”

This generally-accepted iron-clad guideline on how to classify pet theories and newly discovered experimental findings on whether the fledgling theory, observation, or finding is in agreement or not with the second law of thermodynamics. If the theory is not in agreement with the second law, it will have no choice but to collapse into the deepest of humiliation. This rule was stated by English astronomer Arthur Eddington in 1927 during his Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburg as follows:

“If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations — then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation — well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.”

This quote was first published in Eddington’s famous 1928 book The Nature of the Physical World. [1]

Black holes
One of the famous examples of the usages of this rule was the prediction of Hawking radiation by Stephen Hawking, when he found then-established experimental data and models of black holes that did not seem to agree with the second law. Sure enough, Hawking held-fast to an unwritten form of the Eddington rule, and sure-enough it paid off and radiation coming out of black holes was discovered.

Evolution
In grasping at attempt to reconcile evolution with entropy, there have been numerous attempts by lay-thermodynamicists, seemingly completely unaware of the Eddington rule, to formulate concepts that are said to be "counter to entropy" or run opposite to the second law, such as: anti-entropy, disentropic, ectropy, ektropy, entropy ethics, entropy reduction, entropy reversal, genetic entropy, gentropy, inverse entropy, local entropy decrease, entropy islands, low entropy, mental entropy, syntropy, syntropic, teleonomic entropy, genopsych, among others. To quote one example, representative of all of these, 'syntropic' is a term, conceived by Italian mathematician Luigi Fantappié, in the 1940s, is said to describe phenomena governed by a force, opposed to entropy, which attracts living systems towards higher levels of organization and order. All of these have resulted in humiliation and redicule.

References
1. (a) Eddington, Arthur S. (1928). The Nature of the Physical World (pg. 74). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(b) Eddington, Arthur. (1927). The Nature of the Physical World: Gifford Lectures of 1927, An Annotated Edition (humiliation, pg. 84). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.