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An excerpt from the beginning of the lecture:
The problem with which we shall be occupied in the present lecture is that of a closer investigation of the atomic theory of matter. It is, however, not my intention to introduce this theory with nothing further, and to set it up as something apart and disconnected with other physical theories, but I intend above all to bring out the peculiar significance of the atomic theory as related to the present general system of theoretical physics; for in this way only will it be possible to regard the whole system as one containing within itself the essential compact unity, and thereby to realize the principal object of these lectures.
Consequently it is self evident that we must rely on that sort of treatment which we have recognized in last week's lecture as fundamental. That is, the division of all physical processes into reversible and irreversible processes. Furthermore, we shall be convinced that the accomplishment of this division is only possible through the atomic theory of matter, or, in other words, that irreversibility leads of necessity to atomistics.
I have already referred at the close of the first lecture* to the fact that in pure thermodynamics, which knows nothing of an atomic structure and which regards all substances as absolutely continuous, the difference between reversible and irreversible processes can only be defined in one way, which a priori carries a provisional character and does not withstand penetrating analysis. This appears immediately evident when one reflects that the purely thermodynamic definition of irreversibility which proceeds from the impossibility of the realization of certain changes in nature, as, e. g., the transformation of heat into work without compensation, has at the outset assumed a definite limit to man's mental capacity, while, however, such a limit is not indicated in reality. On the contrary: mankind is making every endeavor to press beyond the present boundaries of its capacity, and we hope that later on many things will be attained which, perhaps, many regard at present as impossible of accomplishment. Can it not happen then that a process, which up to the present has been regarded as irreversible, may be proved, through a new discovery or invention, to be reversible? In this case the whole structure of the second law would undeniably collapse, for the irreversibility of a single process conditions that of all the others.
* Publisher's Note: This lecture is also available for your e-book reader.
