Essays on symmetry (original) (raw)

2016

Abstract

Structures of many different sorts arise in physics, e.g., the concrete structures of material bodies, the structure exemplified by the spatiotemporal configuration of a set of bodies, the structures of more abstract objects like states, state-spaces, laws, and so on. To each structure of any of these types there corresponds a set of transformations which map it onto itself. These are its symmetries. Increasingly ubiquitous in theoretical discussions in physics, the notion of symmetry is also at the root of some time-worn philosophical debates. This dissertation consists of a set of essays on topics drawn from places where the two fields overlap. The first essay is an informal introduction to the mathematical study of symmetry. The second essay defends a famous principle of Pierre Curie which states that the symmetries of a cause are always symmetries of its effect. The third essay takes up the case of reflection in space in the context of a controversy stemming from one of Kant&#39...

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