Wright on this, which is highly relevant to Arnheim's arguments.) Throughout the book, the author seeks to compound this central error on a num.be~ of levels. (The best that can be said is that some of the less thoughtful authors of physics textbooks have also been known to lea~ themselves logically astray by too much emphasIs on non-interacting systems. simply not true that the statistical basis ?f entropy can only be given meaning fo~ non-mteractl.ve systems if it were so, much that IS of almost dally concern to physicists-the stability of crystals, the structure ofliquids, magnetism and so on-could be given no useful interpretation. Unfortunately, it is *20 Bradbourne St., London SW6 3TE, England. Such an interpretation, clearly complete anathema to a Gestalt psychologist, would imply a total inability of statistical-thermodynamic theory to interpret 'structure' or any form of balanced inter-relationship within the whole.
Arnheim's central mistake, to which he commits himself quite embarrassingly on page 21, is to believe that the microscopic theory of entropy is based essentially upon the statistics of independent units or sub-systems, registering their state with the observer but without significant influence upon each other.
Unfortunately, both are largely invalidated, almost at a stroke, by a single monumental misconception set in a whole variety oflesser misunderstandings of the way the concept of entropy is defined and used in science. Both parts are sUitably unpretentious and fragmentarily brilliant in the interplay of elements from the author's vast reading and experience ofexperimental psychology. The essay is in two parts, the first a tentative synthesis of thermodynamic, aesthetic and Gestalt-theoretic notions, the second a shorter, but more readable, account of the place ofthese inyostDarwinian history of ideas. Rudolf Arnheim's most recent book, WhICh wIll inevitably be read as a postscript to his ea~lier, massive volumes on art-psychology and vIsual perception, belongs to a distinct and slig?tly remote tradition-the long and sadly-unreqUited love affair between Gestalt pyschology and physics, which began in Germany nearly fifty years ago and has been continued for the last thirty or so in America. From here on it has held a well-nigh irresistible fascination for a certain strain of critics, to whom it offers at once a compelling formation of the pessimistic Zeitgeist, a counterbalance to over-doctrinaire notions of 'structure', a voice of some authority in the 'Two Cultures' debate and, one has to add, almost unlimited possibilities for honest misinterpretation. ~~a tion theory, codes, pattern recogmtIOn, hngUIStlcs and other topics on the arts-science borderline. Somewhat later came the idea of entropy as a measure of microscopic disorder in a system and, later still, the connecti~n.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics, asserting that the entropy of the universe is increased by all natural processes, grew out of early nineteenth century studies of heatengines and later took on the more sinister emphasis of the 'heat death', as Clausius was to describe the arrival at the ultimate, immutable universe of maximum entropy. Reviewed by: Michael Hoare* Entropy is the abstract concept used by physicists and engineers to measure the tendency of all energy in the universe to degrade into ever less accessible, less differentiated forms. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1971. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ħ6 Books Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order.
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