In existographies, Léon Winiarski (1865-1915) (IQ:190|#41) (SN:4|55+) (CR:176) was a Polish mathematical physics based sociopolitical economist notable for teaching a course on "social mechanics" for six years (1894-1900) at the University of Geneva (see: human thermodynamics education), in which he utilized a a Lagrangian-Clausius based explanation of social and economic movement, using differential equations, in which he discusses advanced concepts such as sexual energy, aesthetic energy, among numerous others, in terms of energy and entropy. The bulk of his theory is captured in his 1898 book Essay on Social Mechanics and his teaching course is described in his 1900 report "The teaching of pure economics and politics of social mechanisms in Switzerland." In 1929, American sociologist Howard W. Odum describing Winiarski as the leader of the mechanistic school of sociology and described his theory as follows: [18]“Winiarski’s mechanistic interpretation posits society as a system of points, individuals in perpetual movement, with attraction as the primary cause of movement. This attraction is like chemical affinity which mechanical bases but with psychic force not present in the physical world, which, however, in turn is nothing more than a form of physico-chemical energy which in turn, in the form of life, may be transferred from potential to kinetic energy, and this transformation is primarily through the processes of alimentation and reproduction. Human masses transmute energies of hunger and sex into various social, economic, aesthetic or intellectual forms, the transformation proceeding entirely according to the laws of thermodynamics. Society and human beings will ultimately reach an equilibrium in some way as the physical world has reached its equilibrium and social science must devise objective units of studying this energistic system of humans in relation to their world.”
“Winiarski is a socialist and in addition ignorant.” — Vilfredo Pareto ()“Winiarski est socialiste et de surcroit ignorant.”
(add discussion)
“Winiarski is perfectly aware of this very new and very difficult science. It is mathematician, which is essential to penetrate as well and to teach correctly.” — Leon Walras ()“Winiarski est parfaitement au courant de cette science tres neuve et tres difficile. Il est mathematician, ce qui est indispensable pour as bien penetrer et pour l’enseigner correctement.”
|
| In 1967, Swiss sociologist Giovanni Busino published a 315-pg edition of Winiarski's collected works on social mechanics entitled Essay on Social Mechanics. |
“The psychology of sexual elements on one hand, seems to us quite right. It is between the sperm and egg that biological attraction, more or less, which is the same mechanics as the chemical attraction between the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen.”
In other words, what Winiarski seems to be saying is that the psychology of sexual attraction, which results ultimately in the biological attraction that draws the sperm and egg together, are both of the same mechanics of the operation of chemical affinity, or Gibbs free energy change (modern view), as that which draws the hydrogen and oxygen atoms together.
“A social aggregate is nothing but a system of points, i.e. individuals, who are in perpetual movement of approaching or withdrawing from one another.”
“The forces of work, system kinetic energy will be equal to the differences of the potential energies. To ensure the transformation of the active forces of the biological energies, unrealised potential processing takes place, it must be between comprizing breeds in a social aggregate, where there is a difference in potential. All the differences in these potential energies go into energy kinetic—but the total energy remains unchanging during processing; there is only a change in form.”
“Having furnished the equations of social equilibrium, we have laid the foundations for social mechanics—on its static side—on the principle of Lagrange, that of least effort or greatest energy, i.e. on the principle that serves as the basis of cosmic mechanics. Passing to the dynamic side of the problem, we have given a definition of socio-biologic energy in the two following forms: Potential (hunger and love) and kinetic (economic, political, juridical, moral, esthetic, religious, and scientific). This led us to the application of the principles of thermodynamics, the third of which, that of Clausius, explains at the same time the gradual spiritualization of every closed social aggregate and the lowering of its potential. It is the dissipation of the entropy which takes place in the social world as in the physical world.”
(a) Equilibrium and social economics (L’equilibre economieque et social)
(b) The transformations of social energy (Les transformations of de l’energie sociale)
(c) Social dynamics (La dynamique sociale)
See main: Aesthetic energyWiniarski seems to have had views on the relationships between aesthetics, energy, and equilibrium points in life, as published in his 36-page 1899 article "Aesthetic Equilibrium". [14] Winiarski argued that beauty, in respect to those nervous system movements that result in attraction movements, is a function of “aesthetic energy”, i.e. the energy correspondent to movements towards objects of beauty, and to “biological energy”. To cite an example, Winiarski affirmed that: [9]
“The prices of commodities represent nothing but the various conversion coefficients of biological energy: gold is therefore the general social equivalent, the pure personification and incarnation of socio-biological energy.”
“Periods of maximum pleasure are followed and preceded by a period of equilibrium, and just so much pleasure results as there has been energy expended.”
“Winiarski has gone to the metaphysically ridiculous in attempting to establish an identity between biologic energy and feeling consciousness, thus reducing ‘egoism’ and ‘altruism’ to actual social forces, akin to the physical forces, which will enable us to formulate an exact science of sociology.”
“Leon Winiarski, a European sociologist, treated human societies in terms of energy. He discusses social systems in terms of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and uses differential equations to describe certain social processes. But for all this, he seems merely to present social systems as analogous to physical systems, to describe them in the language of physics, rather than to apply physical concepts to gain new insights and understandings of socio-cultural systems.”
“Discussions about energy and the economy have included two mistaken views. One mistaken view is the ‘energy theory of value’ (Punti, 1988). Another mistaken view is based on the isomorphism between the equations of mechanics and the equations of economic equilibrium of neoclassical economics after 1870. It was believed that in economic exchange there is an exchange of psychic energy. Winiarski, at the turn of the century, was a spokesman for this absurd view.”
“Georgescu-Rogen, in his Entropy Law and the Economic Process (pg. 283), points out that ‘there have been sporadic suggestions that all economic value can be reduced to a common denominator of low entropy’ and mentions Helm (1887) and Winiarski (1900).”— Richard Adams (1988), The Eight Day (pg. 94)
“The energy of social transformation is submitted to the same laws as the energy of the universe. These are the laws of thermodynamics. We can thus represent a primitive horde, as a material system in movement, the driving forces that cause the movement being hunger and love or attraction. Similar to how a cannonball meeting an obstacle transforms the energy contained in its mass movement into internal heat, energy of light, electricity, etc., so to do the members of the movement of the crude social mass transform when meeting barriers from the natural surroundings and other tribes, represented by economic, political, legal, moral, aesthetic, religious, and intellectual needs. There is transformation of the energy of the mass social movement in internal energies, psychologies, but there is no gain or loss of energy. Moreover this transformation is continuous across social system. Just as any movement of any mass of the universe is accompanied by production of heat, so to are the masses of biology and society transformed into mental phenomena of different kinds. Here we can apply the first principle of thermodynamics: that of the equivalence (the principle of Mayer).”References— Leon Winiarski (1898), “Essay on Social Mechanics: Social Energy and its Measurements.” [28]
