SV: [PEIRCE-L] The second law of thermodynamics

2014-06-29 Thread Søren Brier
Jerry

As I understand it, this is where the concept of information in self-organizing 
systems has its relevance in modern physics . But for Peirce it would be 
Thirdness, but where the habits comes from evolutionary in a metaphysics that 
does not believe in Platonic ideas or even Aristotelian forms I do not know.  
And I do not know any relevant Peirce text.
   
Søren

-Oprindelig meddelelse-
Fra: Jerry LR Chandler [mailto:jerry_lr_chand...@me.com] 
Sendt: 28. juni 2014 21:44
Til: Søren Brier
Cc: Evgenii Rudnyi; peirce-l@list.iupui.edu
Emne: Re: [PEIRCE-L] The second law of thermodynamics

Soren, List:

Does the concept of heat embody the concept of form?  If so, how?

Entropy, as a component of the logic of thermodynamics, lacks form.

What gives entropy form?

Cheers

jerry






On Jun 28, 2014, at 6:54 AM, Søren Brier wrote:

 Dear Evgenii and list
 
 That fact is - as Schrödinger and Prigogine points out - that more and more 
 complicated self-organized systems develop feeding on the general growth of 
 entropy in the universe. These systems order more and more of their 
 surroundings in order to support and prolong their own existence. We are 
 already influencing the whole of our planet and is beginning to explore other 
 planets in the solar system in order to use them for our own purpose. So, 
 Peirce is right that our rationality is influencing the universe. Who can say 
 if order or chaos will win in the end?
 
 Best
 Søren
 
 -Oprindelig meddelelse-
 Fra: Evgenii Rudnyi [mailto:use...@rudnyi.ru]
 Sendt: 28. juni 2014 09:44
 Til: peirce-l@list.iupui.edu
 Emne: Re: [PEIRCE-L] The second law of thermodynamics
 
 There is a nice historical book
 
 Helge Kragh, Entropic Creation: Religious Contexts of Thermodynamics 
 and Cosmology, 2008
 
 where the author discusses the heat death debates in 1850-1920. Peirce is 
 mentioned there and a quote from the book is below.
 
 p. 187-188 In 1891 he [Peirce] described his hypothesis as follows:
 
 'The state of things in the infinite past is chaos ... the nothingness of 
 which consists in the total absence of regularity. The state of things in the 
 infinite future is death, the nothingness of which consists in the complete 
 triumph of law and absence of all spontaneity. 
 Between these, we have on our side a state of things in which there is some 
 absolute spontaneity counter to all law, and some degree of conformity to 
 law, ...'
 
 This picture, starting from chaos and ending in an ordered and symmetrical 
 system, turns the ordinary interpretation of the second law on its head. Some 
 years earlier, in a 1884 lecture on 'Design and Chance', he declared that the 
 heat death - in which 'there shall be no force but heat and the temperature 
 everywhere the same' - was unavoidable. Confusingly, the next year he 
 rejected the global heat death scenario, retracting to a position similar to 
 that of many other evolutionary progressivists of the Victorian era: 'But, on 
 the other hand, we may take it as certain that other intellectual races exist 
 on other planets, - if not of our solar system, then of others; and also that 
 innumerable new intellectual races have yet to be developed; so that on the 
 whole, it may be regarded as most certain that intellectual life in the 
 universe will never finally cease.' Perhaps he thought, such as he said in 
 his 'Design and Chance', that the living universe would be saved by what he 
 called 'chance', an influence he considered to be opposite to dissipative 
 forces, of what some later authors referred to as 'entropy'.
 
 Evgenii
 --
 http://blog.rudnyi.ru
 
 On 27.06.2014 17:15 Stephen C. Rose said the following:
 How fixed is the scientific argument for this law? Certainly in this 
 century there have been some who have chipped away at the idea of 
 entropy as a fixed star in an otherwise fallible (subject to
 revision) scientific universe. And I am unaware of where Peirce stood 
 on this matter. Were his notions of continuity and logic uneasy in 
 the shadow of the assertion that everything falls apart?
 
 *@stephencrose https://twitter.com/stephencrose*
 
 
 
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SV: [PEIRCE-L] The second law of thermodynamics

2014-06-28 Thread Søren Brier
Dear Evgenii and list

That fact is - as Schrödinger and Prigogine points out - that more and more 
complicated self-organized systems develop feeding on the general growth of 
entropy in the universe. These systems order more and more of their 
surroundings in order to support and prolong their own existence. We are 
already influencing the whole of our planet and is beginning to explore other 
planets in the solar system in order to use them for our own purpose. So, 
Peirce is right that our rationality is influencing the universe. Who can say 
if order or chaos will win in the end?

Best
 Søren

-Oprindelig meddelelse-
Fra: Evgenii Rudnyi [mailto:use...@rudnyi.ru] 
Sendt: 28. juni 2014 09:44
Til: peirce-l@list.iupui.edu
Emne: Re: [PEIRCE-L] The second law of thermodynamics

There is a nice historical book

Helge Kragh, Entropic Creation: Religious Contexts of Thermodynamics and 
Cosmology, 2008

where the author discusses the heat death debates in 1850-1920. Peirce is 
mentioned there and a quote from the book is below.

p. 187-188 In 1891 he [Peirce] described his hypothesis as follows:

'The state of things in the infinite past is chaos ... the nothingness of which 
consists in the total absence of regularity. The state of things in the 
infinite future is death, the nothingness of which consists in the complete 
triumph of law and absence of all spontaneity. 
Between these, we have on our side a state of things in which there is some 
absolute spontaneity counter to all law, and some degree of conformity to law, 
...'

This picture, starting from chaos and ending in an ordered and symmetrical 
system, turns the ordinary interpretation of the second law on its head. Some 
years earlier, in a 1884 lecture on 'Design and Chance', he declared that the 
heat death - in which 'there shall be no force but heat and the temperature 
everywhere the same' - was unavoidable. Confusingly, the next year he rejected 
the global heat death scenario, retracting to a position similar to that of 
many other evolutionary progressivists of the Victorian era: 'But, on the other 
hand, we may take it as certain that other intellectual races exist on other 
planets, - if not of our solar system, then of others; and also that 
innumerable new intellectual races have yet to be developed; so that on the 
whole, it may be regarded as most certain that intellectual life in the 
universe will never finally cease.' Perhaps he thought, such as he said in his 
'Design and Chance', that the living universe would be saved by what he called 
'chance', an influence he considered to be opposite to dissipative forces, of 
what some later authors referred to as 'entropy'.

Evgenii
--
http://blog.rudnyi.ru

On 27.06.2014 17:15 Stephen C. Rose said the following:
 How fixed is the scientific argument for this law? Certainly in this 
 century there have been some who have chipped away at the idea of 
 entropy as a fixed star in an otherwise fallible (subject to
 revision) scientific universe. And I am unaware of where Peirce stood 
 on this matter. Were his notions of continuity and logic uneasy in the 
 shadow of the assertion that everything falls apart?

 *@stephencrose https://twitter.com/stephencrose*



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