Phase transitions

Mark Kac

pp. 514-526

in: Jagdish Mehra (ed), The physicist's conception of nature, Berlin, Springer, 1973

Abstract

I feel a bit strange in talking about the development of the physicist's conception of nature because I am not a physicist by training, and I could therefore watch this development only from the sidelines. Although this position often affords a better view, it also distorts it and makes it easy to miss some of the essential plays.