Georgescu-Roegen's defense of classical thermodynamics revisited

Abstract

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's criticisms, added to those of physicists and philosophers, result in a definitive refutation of Boltzmann's claim that his H-theorem derives the Second Law of Thermodynamics solely from Newtonian Mechanics. Some authors using Boltzmann's Statistical Mechanics go so far as to claim that perpetual motion machines are feasible in principle; this is also incorrect. Modern approaches by Ilya Prigogine and by the “Astrophysical School” to build thermodynamics on a basis that avoids Georgescu-Roegen's objections are surveyed. These conclusions have both epistemological and technological importance for economics; this paper emphasizes the former. The epistemological argument is: (1) The entropy law is an evolutionary law. (2) Modern neoclassical economics is arithmomorphic. (3) Arithmomorphic laws cannot capture evolutionary changes. (4) Hence neoclassical economics cannot incorporate the entropy law's implications for the economic process. (5) If one can show that modern physicists use evolutionary laws despite their non-arithmomorphic nature, then maybe (6) economists will become accepting of evolutionary laws. (7) This would be good because the entropy law, which is evolutionary (point 1), has important implications for economics. This paper primarily treats the most unfamiliar point for non-physicists, point 5.