INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 603 Amsterdam, Febrary 17th, 2015 THE FINAL CAUSE OF COSMIC DEVELOPMENT - Nondual Spirit, or the Second Law of Thermodynamics? - MICHAEL E. ZIMMERMAN An important function of integral theory is to provide a coherent narrative of cosmic, terrestrial, and human development. Ideally, such a narrative is informed by multiple perspectives, including artistic, spiritual, ethical, scientific, and political. We should assess such narratives in regard to their comprehensiveness, their capacity to orient in a time of confusion, their ability to inspire commitment to a workable future, and their willingness to accept with equanimity the fact that things often do not turn out the way we would prefer. In the past two decades, many useful cosmic narratives have appeared, some more integrative than others.[4] In this essay, I will examine another cosmic narrative, this one constructed by a remarkably well-informed integral thinker, Stanley N. Salthe, emeritus professor of evolutionary biology at City University of New York. Read more: http://integralworld.net/zimmerman9.html ENTROPY: WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN? - STANLEY N. SALTHE The definitions we prefer in science are supposed to be explicit and crisp, so that they may be made operational when mediated by equations. But each of these may be somewhat of a falsification of the actual idea, which, if it gives rise to several definitions, must be richer, and vaguer. Here I will seek the full meaning of entropy by examining its four major manifestations in modern science: Carnot’s entropie (Carnot 1824 / 1960); Boltzmann’s most probable condition, S, usually interpreted as disorder (Boltzmann, 1886 / 1974); Prigogine’s delta S, or change in entropy (Prigogine, 1955); and Shannon’s H, or information carrying capacity (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). The “intersection” of these definitions would be close to the real meaning of entropy—but can it be stated explicitly in words? Read more: http://integralworld.net/salthe1.html