The Eighth Day
Social Evolution As the Self-Organization of Energy
Published on 1. March 1988
Book
Paperback/Softback
312 pages
978-0-292-72061-9 (ISBN)
Description
Can human social evolution be described in terms common to other sciences, most specifically, as an energy process? The Eighth Day reflects a conviction that the human trajectory, for all its uniqueness and indeterminism, will never be satisfactorily understood until it is framed in dynamics that are common to all of nature. The problem in doing this, however, lies in ourselves. The major social theories have failed to treat human social evolution as a component of broader natural processes.
The Eighth Day argues that the energy process provides a basis for explaining, comparing, and measuring complex social evolution. Using traditional ecological energy flow studies as background, society is conceived as a self-organization of energy. This perspective enables Adams to analyze society in term of the natural selection of self-organizing energy forms and the trigger processes basic to it. Domestication, civilization, socioeconomic development, and the regulation of contemporary industrial nation-states serve to illustrate the approach. A principal aim is to explore the limitation that energy process imposes on human social evolution as well as to clarify the alternatives that it allows.
Richly informed by contemporary anthropological historicism, sociobiology, and Marxism, The Eighth Day avoids simple reductionism and denies facile ideological categorization. Adams builds on work in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and theoretical biology and brings three decades of his own work to an analysis of human society that demands an extreme materialism in which human thought and action find a central place.
The Eighth Day argues that the energy process provides a basis for explaining, comparing, and measuring complex social evolution. Using traditional ecological energy flow studies as background, society is conceived as a self-organization of energy. This perspective enables Adams to analyze society in term of the natural selection of self-organizing energy forms and the trigger processes basic to it. Domestication, civilization, socioeconomic development, and the regulation of contemporary industrial nation-states serve to illustrate the approach. A principal aim is to explore the limitation that energy process imposes on human social evolution as well as to clarify the alternatives that it allows.
Richly informed by contemporary anthropological historicism, sociobiology, and Marxism, The Eighth Day avoids simple reductionism and denies facile ideological categorization. Adams builds on work in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and theoretical biology and brings three decades of his own work to an analysis of human society that demands an extreme materialism in which human thought and action find a central place.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
509 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-292-72061-9 (9780292720619)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Richard Newbold Adams is Rapoport Centennial Professor Emeritus of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.
Content
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Preliminaries
Principles and Explanations
Anthropological Antecedents
Monism and Materialism
Studies of Energy and Society
2. Energy Process
Energy Forms
Equilibrium
Equilibrium and Dissipative Structures
Stability and Steady States
Appendix: Note on Odum's "Energy Quality"
3. Energy Dynamics
The Laws of Thermodynamics
Lotka's Principle
Minimum Dissipation Principle
Trigger-Flow Mechanisms and Principles
4. Self-Organization
Introduction
Equilibrium Bases of Self-Organization
Autopoiesis
Perturbations
Self-Triggering
Appendix: Order and Functional Organization
5. Culture
Mental Self-Organization
Informational Dynamics
Cultural Process
Appendix: Energy and Values
6. Domestication
Domestication? Why Bother?
Ecological and Human Controls
Human Dominance, Culture, and Power
Indigenous California Society
The Emergence of Social Hierarchies
Political and Ideological Implications
Notes
7. Natural Selection
The Broader Issue
In Equilibrium Structures
Self-Organization of Dissipative Structures
Selection and Epistemology
8. Boundary Dynamics
Social Boundaries
Energetic Boundaries
Environments and Closure
9. Civilization
The Meaning of "Civilization"
Civilization as a Trigger
The Origins and Future of Civilization
Notes
10. Humanities
The Classics
Free-Floating Triggers
11. Expansion In Social Hierarchy: A Model
Social Survival Vehicles and Coaxal Structures
Novel and Secondary Constructions
The Emergence of Hierarchy: Work and Regulation
12. Energy and Industrialization
Modeling Industrialization Expansion
The Energy Sector Model
Interactive Changes among Sectors
Expansion of the Regulatory Sector
Regulation in Subnational Units
Notes
Postscript: Development and Contemporary Social Evolution
References
Index
Preface
Introduction
1. Preliminaries
Principles and Explanations
Anthropological Antecedents
Monism and Materialism
Studies of Energy and Society
2. Energy Process
Energy Forms
Equilibrium
Equilibrium and Dissipative Structures
Stability and Steady States
Appendix: Note on Odum's "Energy Quality"
3. Energy Dynamics
The Laws of Thermodynamics
Lotka's Principle
Minimum Dissipation Principle
Trigger-Flow Mechanisms and Principles
4. Self-Organization
Introduction
Equilibrium Bases of Self-Organization
Autopoiesis
Perturbations
Self-Triggering
Appendix: Order and Functional Organization
5. Culture
Mental Self-Organization
Informational Dynamics
Cultural Process
Appendix: Energy and Values
6. Domestication
Domestication? Why Bother?
Ecological and Human Controls
Human Dominance, Culture, and Power
Indigenous California Society
The Emergence of Social Hierarchies
Political and Ideological Implications
Notes
7. Natural Selection
The Broader Issue
In Equilibrium Structures
Self-Organization of Dissipative Structures
Selection and Epistemology
8. Boundary Dynamics
Social Boundaries
Energetic Boundaries
Environments and Closure
9. Civilization
The Meaning of "Civilization"
Civilization as a Trigger
The Origins and Future of Civilization
Notes
10. Humanities
The Classics
Free-Floating Triggers
11. Expansion In Social Hierarchy: A Model
Social Survival Vehicles and Coaxal Structures
Novel and Secondary Constructions
The Emergence of Hierarchy: Work and Regulation
12. Energy and Industrialization
Modeling Industrialization Expansion
The Energy Sector Model
Interactive Changes among Sectors
Expansion of the Regulatory Sector
Regulation in Subnational Units
Notes
Postscript: Development and Contemporary Social Evolution
References
Index