In hmolscience, Andre Lalande (1867-1963) was a French philosopher noted, in human thermodynamics, for his 1899 to 1931 "involution" theory aimed at correcting evolution theory as entropy and the dissipation of energy would see things, in his view.
Overview
In 1899, Lalande, in his Dissolution Opposed to Evolution in the Physical and Moral Sciences, his PhD thesis, presents an argument, as summarized by Leon Winiarski (1900), who finds the work in support of his own and similar to French lawyer Maurce Haurion’s Lessons Social Movement (1899), “directed towards an application of mechanics and thermodynamics to social science.” [1] According to one recent summary of Lalande: [2]
“Lalande's philosophy is [to some considered] disputable. He revolts against favorite ideas, especially against monistic evolutionism. According to Lalande, two laws rule over the world. The one, evolution, is dominant in biology, the other, involution, a term nearly identical with entropy, in the physico-chemical world. Life, as it can be observed, results from a compromise between two antagonistic tendencies of which the one is directed toward increasing individual differences, and the other toward elimination them. Man's will must choose between these two tendencies. He is bound to decide because Lalande denies that the vital impetus is a reliable guide for the organization of human life. Opposed to Spencer and critical of Bergson, Lalande adheres to a moral rationalism.”
In 1930, Lalande published a revised version of his doctoral thesis as The Evolutionist Illusions, wherein he made a further attempt to explain how the law of the dissipation of energy fits into the logic of evolution. [3]
French philosopher Henri Bergson (1911) cites Lalande's Dissolution, in his discussion of the second law, mentioning that Lalande argues that life is a willed tendency towards death. [4]
References
1. (a) Lalande, Andre. (1899). La Dissolution opposée à Evolution dans les sciences physiques et morales (Dissolution Opposed to Evolution in the Physical and Moral Sciences) (thermodynamique, 5+ pgs). F. Alcan.
(b) Winiarsky, Leon. (1900). “L’enseignement de l’economie politique pure et de la mecanique sociale en Suisse” ("The Teaching of Pure Political Economics and Social Mechanics in Switzerland") (see: English translation), Privat-Docet, University of Geneva; reprinted in: Le Premier congres de l’enseignement des Sciences Sociales: Comte rendu des séances et texte des memoirs publies par la Commssion permanente international de l’enseignement social (The First Congress of the Social Science Education: Count summary records and texts of memoirs published by the Commission permanent International Education office) (pgs. 341-46), 1901; and Essai sur la Mécanique Sociale: Collected Works (pgs. 291-295), compiled by Giovanni Busino, 1967.
2. Andre Lalande (1867-1963) – Contemporary Philosophers , at RadicalAcademy.com.
3. (a) Lalande, Andre. (1899). Les Illusions Evolutionistes (The Evolutionist Illusions). Publisher.
(b) Farber, Marvin. (1968). Philosophic Thought in France and the United States (Andre Lalande, pgs. 14-15). SUNY Press.
4. Bergson, Henri. (1911). Creative Evolution (pg. 269). H. Holt and Co.
Further reading
● Smith, Colin. (1964). Contemporary French Philosophy (§5: As an Assimilating Force within the World Andre Lalande, pgs. 56-59). Routledge, 2010.
● Moller, Stephen. (2002). “Section: Andre Lalande”, in: Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-century Philosophers (pg. 435). Taylor & Francis.
External links
● Andre Lalande (philosopher) (French → English) – Wikipedia.
