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Thermodynamics, which is why the next section is devoted to explain his theory
albeit briefly.
2.4.4.1 “Matter matters too”: N. Georgescu-Roegen
Georgescu-Roegen (1971) culminated the intellectual path leading on from pure
monetarism to Thermodynamics and placed the Second Law -the Law of Entropy-
(explained in detail in Chap. 3) as the cornerstone of Economics:
“From the epistemological viewpoint, the Entropy Law may be regarded as the
greatest transformation ever suffered by Physics. It marks the recognition by that
science - the most trusted of all sciences of Nature- that there is qualitative change
in the universe:::Of all sciences of inert matter, Thermodynamics is the nearest
to man's skin - literally, not figuratively:::Thermodynamics is fundamentally a
physics of economic value”.
Among Georgescu-Roegen's contributions two are worthy of note: First, that
conventional Economics is an analogue to mechanics in which degradation is not
taken into account because irreversibility does not exist in business cycles. As such,
evolution and qualitative novelty are completely forgotten in the production func-
tions that describe the processes of goods manufacture and services (utilities). These
functions are indifferent to the scale, time and space. In Georgescu-Roegen own
words: “The mechanistic epistemology is responsible for a still greater sin of mod-
ern Economics, namely, the complete ignorance of the role of natural resources in
the economic process” (Georgescu-Roegen, 1977b). Accordingly, matter and energy
waste are seen as an inconvenient output rather than a necessary outcome that can-
not disappear. What comes in the form of productive factors necessarily must leave
as commodities and waste, not only commodities. However, in Economics, money
circulates and closes the cycle no matter its direction, since it is self-su
cient and a
fully reversible perpetuum mobile. So even if “there is no such thing as a free lunch”,
economists have intended to convey the idea that generally for every expenditure,
there must be an equal income. Consequently, the topics of Economics always ba-
lance out: dollars in are equal to dollars out and they never have a deficit like that
which occurs with the matter-energy thermodynamic processes.
The second idea worthy of consideration is that “matter, matters too”, perhaps
even more so than energy, as a conditioning factor to mankind's existence:
and others who made important contributions to the link between the biosphere, Thermodynamics
and Economics at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, it was not until the 1980s when
ecologists and economists were formally brought together, with the establishment in 1982 of the
International Society for Ecological Economics and the Ecological Economics journal constituting
an important milestone. Authors like H. Daly, R. Costanza, C. Hall, B. Hannon, A.-M. Jansson,
H.T. Odum, D. Pimentel, R. Ayres, C. Cleveland, R. Goodland, R. Norgaard, D. Pearce, R.
Hueting, J. Martínez-Alier, C. Perrings, M. O'Connor, S. Funtowicz, J. Proops, J. Ravetz, R.
Passet, M. Ruth, E. Tiezzi, J.M. Naredo, J. Grinevald and others contributed and helped to
develop the new paradigm. See also for details Costanza et al. (1997); and Ropke (2004).
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