Overview
In 1961, Landsberg, in his lecture “Entropy and the Unity of Knowledge”, gave the example of the tendency of a child’s room to become messy as an example of entropy increase. [3]
Religion
In 1990, Landsberg, in his “From Entropy to God”, a conference presentation, stated the following:
“To talk about the implications of science for theology at a scientific meeting seems to break a taboo. But those who think so are out of date. During the last 15 years this taboo has been removed. What is this taboo? Expressed crudely, it is said that only established scientists should philosophize about science and as such they should be at or beyond middle age. Other scientists better stick to experiments, equations and the minutiae which make up the crucial building blocks of science. Later in life, but only if you are famous, may you discuss the temple of science as a whole. What is middle age? When Eddington gave his delightful Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh he was about 45 years old, the sort of age at which Hawking produced his ‘popular’ book.”
— Peter Landsberg (1990), “From Entropy to God” (pg. 380) [5]
“Do these models give a pointer to god? The steady-state universe, the Hawking model... and the infinitely oscillating model decidedly do not. One might almost regard them as models manufactured for a ‘society of atheists’.”
— Peter Landsberg (1990), “From Entropy to God” (pg. #) (Ѻ)
The rest of the talk seems to revolve around a history of “entropy arguments for gods existence”, which he says are not plausibly arguments, but are historical points of view that have been neglected for the last 70-years.
In 1999, Landsberg, aged 77, in his Seeking Ultimates, devoted his last chapter to the query ‘Does God Exist?’, in which he says Blaise Pascal is the “hero” of the chapter, which is code for agnostic leaning towards theism, aka to take Pascal’s wager in one’s last days of existence, such as John Neumann infamously did. [4]
Education
Landsberg completed his MS in 1946, his PhD and DIC (Diploma of the Imperial College) in 1949, and DSc in 1966. [2] Landsberg wrote several books and published over 300 papers. Landsberg was professor and then emeritus professor at the University of Southampton, 1972 to till his reaction end. [1]
References
1. Professor Peter Landsberg – University of Southampton.
2. Peter Landsberg (about) – Book.BTInternet.co.uk.
3. (a) Landsberg, Peter T. (1961). “Entropy and the Unity of Knowledge: an Inaugural Lecture Delivered at University College”, 29th Nov., 1960. University of Wales Press.
(b) Landsberg, Peter T. (1964). “Entropy and the Unity of Knowledge”. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
(c) Arnheim, Rudolf. (1974). Entropy and Art: an Essay on Disorder and Order (pg. 12). University of California Press.
4. Landsberg, Peter. (1999). Seeking Ultimates: An Intuitive Guide to Physics (§9: The Last Question: Does God Exist?, pgs. 228-; god, 29+ pgs). Taylor & Francis.
5. Landsberg, Peter. (1990). “From Entropy to God”, in: Thermodynamics: History and Philosophy; Facts, Trends, Debates; Proceedings of the Conference on Thermodynamics: History and Philosophy, Veszprém, Hungary, 23 – 28 July 1990 (editors: Kokainis Martins, L. Ropoly, P. Szegedi) (abs) (pgs. 379-; taboo, pg. 380). World Scientific, 1991.
Further reading
● Landsberg, Peter T. (1961). Thermodynamics with Quantum-Statistical illustrations. Interscience-Wiley.
● Landsberg, Peter T. (1971). Problems in Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics. Pion Ltd.
● Landsberg, Peter T. (1973). “Thermodynamics, Cosmology, and the Physical Constants”, in J. T. Fraser (ed.), The Study of Time III (1973), pgs. 117-8.
● Landsberg, Peter T. (1979). Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics. Oxford University Press.
● Landsberg, Peter T. and Tranah, D. (1980). “Entropies Need not be Concave”, Physics Letters, 78A 219-20.
● Landsberg, Peter T. (1982). The Enigma of Time. Bristol: Adam Hilger.
● Landsberg, Peter T. (1984). “Is Equilibrium Always an Entropy Maximum?”, Journal of Statistical Physics, 35: 159-69.
● Landsberg, Peter T. (1984). “Can Entropy and ‘Order’ Increase Together?” (abs), Physics Letters, 102A: 171-73.
● Landsberg, Peter T. (1999). Seeking Ultimates: An Intuitive Guide to Physics (pgs. 231-32). CRC Press.
External links
● Peter Landsberg (German → English) – Wikipedia.
● Thermodynamics Quotations – Today in Science History
● Peter T. Landsberg (publications) - Scientific Commons Beta.
● Staff. (2010). “Professor Peter Landsberg”, The Telegraph, May 19.
In existographies, Peter Landsberg (1922-2010) (CR:12) was a German-born English physicist and statistical thermodynamicist noted for his views on a number of various topics such as black hole thermodynamics, cosmological thermodynamics, the thermodynamic arrow, the entropological proof, and an irreversible thermodynamics view of life, among others. 