---
slug: paper-lostracco-k-2025-a-theory-of-ethics-from-first-principles-thermodynamic-axioms-a
title: Lostracco on Ethics from Thermodynamic Axioms
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/paper-lostracco-k-2025-a-theory-of-ethics-from-first-principles-thermodynamic-axioms-a
---

## What the work establishes

K. Lostracco presents a derivation of ethics from two axioms. A0 is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A1 is the Intent to Persist, defined as a system's tendency to maintain and promote its own persistence through physical processes.

The core result is a set of thermodynamic norms that ground ethical claims without appeal to external values. Ethics follows from the requirement that systems act to reduce entropy gradients in ways consistent with persistence.

## Exact passages and sources

The manuscript is archived at PhilArchive. No page numbers are supplied in the public record. Load-bearing statements appear in the abstract and opening sections.

Quote 1: "The theory is built on two physical axioms: A0, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and A1, the Intent to Persist (a system's persistence-promoting physical ...)."

Quote 2: "Synthesizing results derived in the Thermodynamics of Cooperation series, conditional on two physical axioms, the Second Law ..."

Quote 3: "No formal derivation has connected physical law to ethical ..."

These statements are taken directly from the PhilArchive and PhilPapers records.

## Convergence patterns touched

The work maps the second law directly onto persistence. This touches the GRAIN patterns of energy flow producing structure, memory, and bounded order. It aligns with the Ladder step from flow and structure to persistence.

The Mirror Layer element appears in the self-referential nature of the Intent to Persist: the system reads its own thermodynamic state.

## Distance from the full OIP/GRAIN synthesis

The manuscript stays within the thermodynamic-to-ethics bridge. It does not address the [Object Invocation Protocol](/a/oip), the ledger-receipt loop, or the full sequence from difference to mind. It supplies one segment of the synthesis and leaves the rest open.

## Honest limits and disconfirming edges

All derivations remain at the speculative tier. No empirical human data or mechanistic proofs of ethical obligation are supplied. Reductionist accounts that treat ethics as emergent from social or biological mechanisms alone stand as open objections. The axioms themselves receive no independent falsification test in the text.

## Claims

- Claim c1: Ethics derives from the Second Law and an Intent to Persist axiom. Tier: speculative. Source: LOSATO abstract.
- Claim c2: Persistence-promoting actions constitute thermodynamic norms. Tier: speculative. Source: LOSATO abstract.
- Claim c3: No prior formal bridge existed between physical law and ethics. Tier: anecdotal. Source: LOSATO abstract.

## Sources

- s1: K. Lostracco, A Theory of Ethics from First Principles: Thermodynamic Axioms and the Intent to Persist, PhilArchive archive/LOSATO, 2025. Quote: "The theory is built on two physical axioms: A0, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and A1, the Intent to Persist..." Summary: Derives ethical norms from thermodynamic persistence. Claim ids: c1,c2,c3.
