We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
The Three Laws of Thermodynamics and the Theory of Production.
- Authors
Khalil, Elias L.
- Abstract
The article examines the issue regarding Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics, the so-called entropy law, and its relevance to the economics of production. The article distinguishes between entropy arising from the entropy law, on the one hand, and waste arising from consumption or production on the other. The failure to delineate the two has led a few economists to think that the economic process can basically be captured by the entropy law. The concept of entropy might, at best, be relevant for measuring the degradation of matter or the rise of waste as argued by Reiner Kümmel in 1989 and others, irrespective of whether it was brought about by the entropy law or instigated by human production or consumption. However, this does not mean that the economic process is governed by the entropy law. The paper advanced this point on the basis of three distinctions. First, there is a difference between the dissipation of available energy á la entropy law, on one hand, and the diffusion of matter arising from soil erosion and friction in general on the other. Second, there is a distinction between the latter and the instigated dispersion of resources brought about by the purposive agent. Third, there is a demarcation between the latter and the dispersion occasioned by the Carnot-like transformation of incoherent energy into coherent free energy. Georgescu-Roegen failed to make the three distinctions: First, he lumped the subset of dissipation á la entropy law with the general set of diffusion of matter. Second, he conflated the latter with the exclusive set of consumption-instigated dispersion of resources. Third, he grouped the latter with the subset of production-instigated dispersion of resources occasioned by Carnot-like transformation.
- Subjects
SECOND law of thermodynamics; ENTROPY; PRODUCTION (Economic theory); GEORGESCU-Roegen, Nicholas, 1906-1994; ECONOMICS
- Publication
Journal of Economic Issues (Association for Evolutionary Economics), 2004, Vol 38, Issue 1, p201
- ISSN
0021-3624
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/00213624.2004.11506672