( Completed: 2012)
From Boltzmann to Planck
Ludwig Boltzmann, Vorlesungen über die Principe der Mechanik, 1897
This project aims at the study of the emergence, the development and the critiques of statistical arguments and the concept of probability in physics and their relation with the conceptual and formal tools of classical mechanics. Accordingly, the task is to point out the historical route leading to the modern understanding of Statistical Mechanics, following the elaboration of some key notions such as the ergodic hypothesis, the Stoßzahlansatz, the concept of stochastic process and their role in the mechanistic worldview.
