In science, Erwin Nick Hiebert (1919-2012) was a Canadian-born American science historian noted, in religious thermodynamics, for his 1966 article "The Uses and Abuses of Thermodynamics in Religion". [1] The following is oft-repeated quote from this work: [2]
“All kinds of private metaphysics and theology have grown like weeds in the garden of thermodynamics.”
Hiebert also published a shorter history of thermodynamics and religion. [3]
Hiebert also wrote on the great 1895 energetics debate. [4]
Education
Hiebert completed his PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1954 in the history of science and physical chemistry, after which he was professor of history of science at UW-Madison, from 1957 to 1970, thereafter becoming professor of the history of science at Harvard University from 1970 to 1989, becoming professor emeritus thereafter. [5]
References
1. Hiebert, Erwin N. (1966). Thermodynamics and Religion: an Historical Appraisal. Transcript (photocopy). 100-pgs.
2. (a) Hiebert, Erwin N. (1966). “The Uses and Abuses of Thermodynamics in Religion”, Daedalus, 95: 1046-80 (quote: pg. 1075).
(b) Hiebert, Erwin N. (1986). “Modern Physics and Christian Faith” (pgs. 424-47) in: God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science (pg. 427), by: Lindberg, David C. and Numbers, Ronald L. University of California Press.
3. Hiebert, Erwin N. (1966). The Uses and Abuses of Thermodynamics in Religion. 1,080-pages, American Academy of Arts and Science.
4. Hiebert, Erwin N. (1971). “The Energetics Controversy and the New Thermodynamics”, in Perspectives in the History of Science and Technology (pgs. 67-86), Roller, Duane H. (ed.). Norman.
5. Hiebert, Erwin N. (1919-2012) – Library of Congress.
Further reading
● Hiebert, Erwin N. (1962). “The Concept of Chemical Affinity in Thermodynamics”, Proc. 10th Int. Conf. Hist. Sci, 2:871-73,
External links
● Erwin N. Hiebert – Professor Emeritus, Harvard Science.
● Hiebert, Erwin N. (1919-2012) – WorldCat Identities.
