Abstract

Presents an exploratory critical essay on the Origins of Capital and the Foundations of Thermodynamics, viewing capital as a physical or biological engine that processes materials and transforms energy in an environment of thermal non-equilibrium and showing the importance of capital in the comprehension of thermodynamics. Reviews capital theory, evolutionary biology, the origins of life, and thermodynamics, and argues that the idea of scarcity as the fountain of history and its concomitant concepts of value must be incorporated in the substance of thermodynamics and the meaning of measurement. For historians and philosophers of science and economics, and engineering thermodynamicists. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.