Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1978
Abstract
A critical survey of all definitions of economics shows that, logically, a study of economic activities from a physical point of view must be considered an integral part of the discipline. One such study could reveal the nature of value-in-use often overlooked in economic theory.
It is posited that the process of use can be taken as the basic analytical building block of whose variations and combinations all economic activities can be shown to be composed. Each use can appear in one of three forms: pure use, consumption, and production (or productive use). The physical criterion on which this distinction is made is the entropic change of the physical system under use. In all uses, the entropy of the entire, closed physical system (in the thermodynamic sense) can never decrease due to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In pure use, however, the increase is exactly equal to what would have occurred naturally. ' In consumption, the increase is greater than that. And in production it can be observed that there are some subsystems actually undergoing a decrease in entropy.
It is shown that human predilection (e.g., preference) can be inferred from the physical representation of the process of use. Specific:ally, the degree of care with which an individual executes a use does reveal his subjective predilection for the use in question. Greater care tends to make the•state after use of the system more accurately known, ceteris paribus, in reference to some standard.
Repository Citation
Dung, T. H. (1978). Toward a Physical Theory of Economic Activities. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/econ/374
