Abstract

Over the course of the past two centuries, a number of philosophers have focused on time and historical development and their relation to ontological, moral, and epistemological issues. Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault and Derrida are just a few examples. ;With each of these philosophers, as well as many others, this focus has illustrated that philosophical reasoning lacks the stable, universal foundation that it was thought to possess. ;I argue that, unlike Heidegger, Foucault and Derrida, Nietzsche acknowledges the implications of the second law of thermodynamics---the thermodynamic arrow of time---which describes the increasing disorganization of all systems plus their environment over time. This law illustrates that all systems require an expenditure of work from an outside source to maintain their organization. I shall illustrate through investigations of the natural and social sciences that the ability of a society to produce and consume energy within its environment sets constraints on its citizens' freedom, and their ability to attain moral and epistemological values. ;More than any other philosopher, Nietzsche acknowledged the thermodynamic limitations on human existence. I bring this side of his thought out through interpretations of his concepts of eternal recurrence and the will to power. I then use this reading of Nietzsche to critically examine the work of Derrida, focusing particularly on his own endorsement of Nietzsche's affirmation of the eternal return of life and its relation to his deconstructive strategies. From this investigation of continental philosophy, I develop a conception of being and sketch the general outlines of a critical methodology that acknowledge the relationship between time and the second law of thermodynamics: between being and entropy