Philosophy of statistical mechanics

Statistical Mechanics is the third pillar of modern physics, next to quantum theory and relativity theory. Its aim is to account for the macroscopic behaviour of physical systems in terms of dynamical laws governing the microscopic constituents of these systems and probabilistic assumptions. Like other theories in physics, statistical mechanics raises a number of foundational and philosophical issues. But philosophical discussions in statistical mechanics face an immediate difficulty because unlike other theories, statistical mechanics has not yet found a generally accepted theoretical framework or a canonical formalism. In this entry we introduce the different theoretical approaches to statistical mechanics and the philosophical question that attach to them.