this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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marxism

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I always see entropy used here and there in decriptions/critiques of capitalism, so I was wondering if there are papers or books that dive deeper on the topic. Thanks!

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[–] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

If you have a solid diff calculus background, one of my favorite intro to thermodynamics texts is Sandler's Chemical, Biochemical and Engineering Thermodynamics. Keep in mind it is less heavy on the abstraction because it's an engineering/practical text instead of a physics one, in fact It was one of the suggested textbooks for my thermo 1 and 2 classes in college, and those were clases only for chemical engineering majors. But it's really well explained and well written, it made many weird concepts like entropy, enthalpy, Gibbs' free energy, fugacity, and so on suddenly "click" for me.

For Marx's understanding of political economy and planetary metabolism, Kohei Saito is, in my opinion, the authority right now. 'Marx in the Anthropocene' is his most well known work, condensing Marx's proposals for an ecological communism, but to better understand Marx's link to contemporary scientists, including people doing thermodynamics, 'Karl Marx's Ecosocialism' is a better starting point, even if it's way more dense and abstract.

[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Thank you for the recommendations! Will need to brush up my diff calculus very-smart

[–] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Unfortunately, thermodynamics is one of those areas of physics where the math is fundamental to understanding the concepts. It's like they're inseparable from each other. Same with electromagnetism.