RE: [Fis] Distribution of Energy is (not) the same as disorder

> Loet, I do not understand your assertion:
>
> It seems to me that this semantics might distance the
> thermodynamic concept of entropy from the probabilistic one.
>
> As pointed out above in my response to Stan, the narrative is
> rather precise when applied to atomic and molecular phenomenon.
>
> Are you considering some other (non-physical?) source of your
> view of the distribution of vibrational states of a molecule?
>

Dear Jerry and colleagues,

The narrative is substantive, but the formalism is not.
Since the second law holds equally true for probabilistic entropy, the
validity of the narrative seems to depend on the formalism. Thus, the
formalism seems to have epistemological priority of the narrative or, in
other words, the former is more general than the latter (from which it
emerged historically).

Thus, we seem to have a mathematical theory of communication which remains
void of substance without a recombination with a substantive theory of
communication. A substantive theory of communication is determined by "what"
is distributed. In your example, this is "energy". In economics, for
example, transactions are distributed. Thus, special theories of
communication can be formulated by combining the substantive narrative about
the development of a distribution with the formalism of the mathematical
theory of communication. Each special theory can be considered as a
discipline. The mathematical theory of communication additionally serves the
translation among disciplinary perspectives.

With kind regards,

Loet

  _____

Loet Leydesdorff
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681
 <mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net> loet@leydesdorff.net ;
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/> http://www.leydesdorff.net/

 <http://www.upublish.com/books/leydesdorff-sci.htm> The Challenge of
Scientometrics ; <http://www.upublish.com/books/leydesdorff.htm> The
Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society
Received on Thu Sep 16 07:25:53 2004