Wilbur Urban nsIn hmolscience, Wilbur Urban (1873-1952) was an American language philosopher noted, philosophical thermodynamics, for his 1929 “The New Gotterdammerung: Degradation and Value”, wherein he expounds on the view that the second law cannot be wholly irrelevant to philosophy. [1]

Overview
In 1929, Urban, in his “The New Gotterdammerung: Degradation and Value”, digs into the second law of thermodynamics, which he categorizes as a “magnificent dysteleology”, in respect to destiny, then ventures into discussion of: Henri Bergson, Henry Adams, and Wilhelm Ostwald, his “The Energetic Imperative” in particular, William James, among others.

Urban’s position seems to be, in part, a reaction to James' famous contention that the second law is irrelevant to history save as it sets a terminus, and this fact of terminus makes no difference to the meaning and value of history and the truth of progress. [2]

Quotes | Employed
The following are quotes employed by Urban:

“There is no entropy of being.”
Georg Simmel (c.1910)

Reference
1. Author. (1967). “Article” (James Ward, pg. 229; extropy, pg. 229; demon, pgs. 220, 221, 229), Physis, Vol. 9-10.
2. Urban, Wilbur M. (1929). “The New Gotterdammerung: Degradation and Value”, in: The Intelligible World: Metaphysics and Value, Volume 14 (§:12:395-427; Simmel, pg. 395) (thermodynamics, pgs.). Routledge, 2002.

Further reading
● Urban, Wilbur M. (1939). “Science and Symbolism: Symbolism as a Scientific Principle”, in: Language and Reality: the Philosophy of Language and Principles of Symbolism (§11:503-70; thermodynamics, pg. 558). Routledge, 2013.

External links
Wilbur Marshall Urban – Wikipedia.

TDics icon ns