  This paper proves the long-standing open conjecture rooted in chemical
physics (Flory (1949)) that the self-avoiding walk (SAW) in the square lattice
has root mean square displacement exponent \nu= 3/4. This value is an instance
of the formula \nu=1 on Z and \nu = max(1/2, 1/4 + 1/d) in Z^d for dimensions d
\geq 2, which will be proved in a subsequent paper. This expression differs
from the one that Flory's arguments suggested. We consider (a) the point
process of self-intersections defined via certain paths of the symmetric simple
random walk in Z^2 and (b) a ``weakly self-avoiding cone process'' relative to
this point process when in a certain "shape". We derive results on the
asymptotic expected distance of the weakly SAW with parameter \beta>0 from its
starting point, from which a number of distance exponents are immediately
collectable for the SAW as well. Our method employs the Palm distribution of
the point process of self-intersection points in a cone.
