This volume is a collection of papers some of which have already appeared in print, whereas others have been prepared from unpublished lecture notes. Related by a unity of purpose, these papers describe the same logical structure, although one that is still in a state of evolution beyond the limits of classical thermodynamics.
Until the turn of the century, thermodynamic measurements were all macroscopic, and tradition confined thermodynamics to an accordingly limited role. The more recent formulation, as presented here, is complementary to the one historically derived from Newtonian particle mechanics.
This presentation is a combination of the historical inductive and the logical deductive approaches. The style of the work might be called Neo-Gibbsian. The concept of symmetry is used to yield an improved version of the phase rule, and a close unity is established between the phenomenological and statistical parts of Gibb's work. (Parts I and II, respectively.)
Part III deals with more general problems of method and offers a heuristic ideas for a further deepening of thermodynamics, in particular by establishing a closer relation with quantum mechanics.
