In hmolscience, history thermodynamics, a branch of human thermodynamics, the science or subset of history that uses thermodynamic logic and laws to better understand both the past and future of the human race. [1]
Overview
In the 1890s to 1900s, American historian and lawyer Brooks Adams and his brother American historian Henry Adams, began to give a basic outline of thermodynamics used to understand historical events. [2]
In 1918, American historian William Thayer, in commentary on the Adams brothers work, gave an excellent surmise of this field: [5]
“The time may come when human affairs may be described no longer by words and sentences, but by a system of symbols or notation similar to those used in algebra or chemistry … then it may be possible to invent a common formula for thermodynamics and history.”
In commentary on Adams' proposal for a thermodynamic analysis of history, Adams' friend American psychologist William James, the forefunner to the development of William James Sidis, argued against determinism and physicalism stating that “the ‘second law’ is wholly irrelevant to ‘history’—save that it sets a terminus—for history is the course of things before the terminus.” [4]
In 1952, English physicist Charles Galton Darwin, in his book The Next Million Years, used of statistical thermodynamics to conceive of or predict humankind's future, in outline. [3]
Reference
1. Chin, Lawrence. (2006). A Thermodynamic Interpretation of History - a theory of the cosmic origins of power, gender relation, and modernity. A Working Paper.
2. (a) Adams, Henry. (1910). A Letter to American Teachers of History, (pg. 199). Google Books, Scanned PDF. Washington.
(b) Burich, Keith R. (1987). “Henry Adams, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and the Course of History”. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep.), pp. 467-482.
3. Darwin, Charles G. (1952). The Next Million Years (pg. 26), London: Rupert Hart-Davis.
4. Browning, Don S. (1980). Pluralism and Personality: William James and Some Contemporary Cultures of Psychology, (pg. 35). Bucknell University Press.
5. Thayer, William R. (1921). “Vagaries of Historians”. Annual Report of the American Historical Association (pgs. 77-88, esp. pgs. 80-84). G.P.O.
