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GOD AND CHAOS: THE DEMIURGE VERSUS THE UNGRUND
Author(s) -
Hefner Philip
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
zygon®
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-9744
pISSN - 0591-2385
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9744.1984.tb00942.x
Subject(s) - metaphysics , epistemology , meaning (existential) , philosophy , conjunction (astronomy) , entropy (arrow of time) , sociology , physics , thermodynamics , astronomy
. The human quest for meaning is an attempt to bring experience into conjunction with illuminating concepts. The second law of thermodynamics is of wide human concern, because it touches experience which is existentially charged and therefore which humans must interpret in broad metaphysical terms. Five types of experience have been incorporated into the second law: running down, degeneracy, mixed‐up‐ness, irreversibility of time, and emergence of new possibilities. The dominant Western tradition (Plato) places these experiences within a metaphysical scheme that evaluates them negatively, whereas a minority tradition (Berdyaev) evaluates them positively. The former makes entropy anti‐God; the latter places entropy within God.