Statistical mechanics is a strange theory. Its aims are debated, its methods are contested, its main claims have never been fully proven, and their very truth is challenged, yet at the same time, it enjoys huge empirical success and gives us the feeling that we understand important phenomena. What is this weird theory, exactly? Statistical mechanics is the name of the ongoing attempt to apply mechanics (classical, as discussed in this paper, or quantum), together with some auxiliary hypotheses, to explain and predict certain phenomena, above all those described by thermodynamics. This paper shows what parts of this objective can be achieved with mechanics by itself. It thus clarifies what roles remain for the auxiliary assumptions that are needed to achieve the rest of the desiderata. Those auxiliary hypotheses are described in another paper in this journal, Foundations of statistical mechanics: The auxiliary hypotheses.

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统计力学的基础：力学本身

统计力学是一个奇怪的理论。它的目的在辩论，方法在争论，其主要主张从未得到充分证明，其真实性也受到挑战，但同时，它在经验上取得了巨大的成功，并给我们一种我们了解重要现象的感觉。究竟这个怪异的理论是什么？统计力学是正在进行的尝试将力学（本文中讨论的经典方法或量子方法）与一些辅助假设一起用于解释和预测某些现象的尝试的名称，其中最重要的是热力学所描述的现象。本文展示了通过机械本身可以实现此目标的哪些部分。因此，它阐明了为实现其他需求所需要的辅助假设还剩下什么角色。