Introduction

In general, and as a whole, thermodynamics turns out to be a truly multilevel knowledge area. At the first glance the multilevel nature of the area seems to boil down to different fashions, flavors, tastes, and representations of thermodynamics having indeed practically nothing in common. There were a number of outstanding mathematicians who boldly accepted the challenge of trying to formulate the logical foundations of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is long and well known to be fruitfully used for getting valid physical, chemical, and engineering results. Although the lack of logics in the thermodynamics’ foundations has long been noticed, whereas the prevalent standpoint is being based upon the purely ‘operational approach’ to the problem. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.