---
slug: school-non-equilibrium-thermodynamics-dissipative-structures-prigogine-brussels-school
title: Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics and Dissipative Structures: Prigogine, Nicolis, and the Brussels School
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/school-non-equilibrium-thermodynamics-dissipative-structures-prigogine-brussels-school
---

## What the subject saw and its core results

Ilya Prigogine and the Brussels School examined open thermodynamic systems driven far from equilibrium by continuous energy or matter flows. In such conditions, systems export entropy to their surroundings and can form ordered structures that persist only while the flow continues. These structures include convection cells, chemical waves, and spirals. The core result states that dissipation enables local order rather than opposing it.

## Primary works and passages

Prigogine and Nicolis published Self-Organization in Nonequilibrium Systems in 1977. The book derives the conditions under which fluctuations amplify into macroscopic order in nonlinear regimes. Prigogine and Stengers published Order Out of Chaos in 1984. It states that irreversible processes produce new dynamic states called dissipative structures. Prigogine delivered the Nobel lecture in 1977 titled Time, Structure and Fluctuations, which defines dissipative structures as states maintained by entropy export.

## Convergence patterns touched

The work independently derives flow networks, bounded chaos, symmetry breaking, waves, and spirals. Bénard cells form hexagonal or roll patterns under thermal gradients. The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction produces propagating waves and spirals. These match the narrow family of structural patterns listed in the grain description.

## Distance from the full synthesis

The framework reaches from energy flow to structure. It stops before memory, life, or mind. It does not address an observer inside the system or the Mirror Layer. It remains within physico-chemical descriptions.

## Honest limits and disconfirming edges

The mathematics applies rigorously to specific model systems near instability thresholds. Extension to fundamental physics irreversibility remains contested. Reductionist accounts treat the structures as emergent from underlying reversible laws plus boundary conditions. No data link these structures directly to cognitive processes.
