Description: Entropic Creation by Helge S. Kragh Entropic Creation is the first book to consider the cultural and religious responses to the second law of thermodynamics, and the theory proposed by certain Christian scholars during the period 1860 to 1920 that the entropic creation argument is proof of a divine creation of the world. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Entropic Creation is the first English-language book to consider the cultural and religious responses to the second law of thermodynamics, from around 1860 to 1920. According to the second law of thermodynamics, as formulated by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, the entropy of any closed system will inevitably increase in time, meaning that the system will decay and eventually end in a dead state of equilibrium. Application of the law to the entire universe, first proposed in the 1850s, led to the prediction of a future heat death, where all life has ceased and all organization dissolved. In the late 1860s it was pointed out that, as a consequence of the heat death scenario, the universe can have existed only for a finite period of time. According to the entropic creation argument, thermodynamics warrants the conclusion that the world once begun or was created. It is these two scenarios, allegedly consequences of the science of thermodynamics, which form the core of this book. The heat death and the claim of cosmic creation were widely discussed in the period 1870 to 1920, with participants in the debate including European scientists, intellectuals and social critics, among them the physicist William Thomson and the communist thinker Friedrich Engels. One reason for the passion of the debate was that some authors used the law of entropy increase to argue for a divine creation of the world. Consequently, the second law of thermodynamics became highly controversial. In Germany in particular, materialists and positivists engaged in battle with Christian - mostly Catholic - scholars over the cosmological consequences of thermodynamics. This heated debate, which is today largely forgotten, is reconstructed and examined in detail in this book, bringing into focus key themes on the interactions between cosmology, physics, religion and ideology, and the public way in which these topics were discussed in the latter half of the nineteenth and the first years of the twentieth century. Author Biography Helge S. Kragh is a Professor in the History of Science Department at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Some Early Ideas on Decay and Creation; Chapter 3 Thermodynamics and the Heat Death; Chapter 4 The Entropic Creation Argument; Chapter 5 Concepts of the Universe; Chapter 6 Post-1920 Developments; Chapter 7 Shadows from the Past; Review ... an exemplary history of ideas, which taxonomizes and critiques a spectrum of arguments about thermodynamics and cosmology, clearly demarcating newer from older ways of thinking. Particularly fascinating is his account of the staying power of the conservative and theological connotations of thermodynamic cosmology into the Cold War, when it became part of Soviet orthodoxy that laboratory physics could not be applied to the infinite universe. The book will interest scholars of science and religion as well as historians of physics. British Journal for the History of Science Pour découvrir en détail les tenants et les aboutissants de ces débats, rien de tel que le livre érudit, novateur et passionnant dHelge Kragh. [...] Kragh montre en effet que les liens historiques entre philosophie, religion et science sont complexes. Cest un autre mérite de ce très bon livre. Pour la Science Je ne peux que recommander ce livre riche, original et passionnant, à toute personne qui sintéresse à lhistoire de la physique, et en particulier celle de la cosmologie, mais aussi aux philosophes et théologiens qui abordent aujourdhui le débat science-foi. Archives Internationales dHistoire des Sciences Long Description Entropic Creation is the first English-language book to consider the cultural and religious responses to the second law of thermodynamics, from around 1860 to 1920. According to the second law of thermodynamics, as formulated by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, the entropy of any closed system will inevitably increase in time, meaning that the system will decay and eventually end in a dead state of equilibrium. Application of the law to the entire universe, first proposed in the 1850s, led to the prediction of a future heat death, where all life has ceased and all organization dissolved. In the late 1860s it was pointed out that, as a consequence of the heat death scenario, the universe can have existed only for a finite period of time. According to the entropic creation argument, thermodynamics warrants the conclusion that the world once begun or was created. It is these two scenarios, allegedly consequences of the science of thermodynamics, which form the core of this book. The heat death and the claim of cosmic creation were widely discussed in the period 1870 to 1920, with participants in the debate including European scientists, intellectuals and social critics, among them the physicist William Thomson and the communist thinker Friedrich Engels. One reason for the passion of the debate was that some authors used the law of entropy increase to argue for a divine creation of the world. Consequently, the second law of thermodynamics became highly controversial. In Germany in particular, materialists and positivists engaged in battle with Christian - mostly Catholic - scholars over the cosmological consequences of thermodynamics. This heated debate, which is today largely forgotten, is reconstructed and examined in detail in this book, bringing into focus key themes on the interactions between cosmology, physics, religion and ideology, and the public way in which these topics were discussed in the latter half of the nineteenth and the first years of the twentieth century. Details ISBN1138261831 Year 2016 ISBN-10 1138261831 ISBN-13 9781138261839 Format Paperback Series Science, Technology and Culture, 1700-1945 Imprint Routledge Subtitle Religious Contexts of Thermodynamics and Cosmology Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom DEWEY 261.765 Author Helge S. Kragh Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd Illustrations Illustrations, black and white Publication Date 2016-11-15 Pages 278 Short Title Entropic Creation Language English UK Release Date 2016-11-15 AU Release Date 2016-11-15 NZ Release Date 2016-11-15 Alternative 9780754664147 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:134454175;
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ISBN-13: 9781138261839
Book Title: Entropic Creation
Number of Pages: 278 Pages
Language: English
Publication Name: Entropic Creation: Religious Contexts of Thermodynamics and Cosmology
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publication Year: 2016
Subject: Science, History
Item Height: 234 mm
Item Weight: 454 g
Type: Textbook
Author: Helge S. Kragh
Item Width: 156 mm
Format: Paperback
