[PhilPhys] LSE/EPSA talk on symmetries this Thursday 20/03

[Valeriya Chasova]

Dear all, 

As an EPSA fellow, I am currently (briefly) visiting the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS) at the LSE ( [ https://philsci.eu/fellowships | https://philsci.eu/fellowships ] ). In this context, I will be giving an in-person talk at the Conjectures & Refutations seminar (organisers: Daria Zakharova & Alexander Niederklapfer) this Thursday 20/03/2025 at noon. If by chance you are around and interested, you are welcome to attend the talk in London, 28-29 Portugal Street, the Lakatos Building, 2nd floor, room LAK 2.06. The title and abstract of the talk are below. 

Best wishes, 

Valeriya Chasova 

=== 

Valeriya Chasova (Junior Research Fellow, IHST RAS & Associated Member, CEFISES, UCLouvain) 

25 years to empirical statuses of theoretical symmetries: outcomes and perspectives 

2025 marks the 25th anniversary of empirical statuses, direct and indirect (DES and IES), introduced in a seminal philosophy of physics paper by Kosso (2000). Symmetries of physical theories are said to have DES and/or IES if they match with empirical symmetries and/or, through theoretical conservation laws, with conservation phenomena. The initial hope was that DES and IES overturn a long-standing (for 3,5 centuries!) superfluous interpretation of theoretical symmetries, held from the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence (1717) up to Earman's and Norton's hole argument (1987). Instead, DES and IES would promote the interpretation of those elements of physical theories which vary under symmetry transformations as non-superfluous. And they would do that more robustly than the old gauge argument due to Weyl (1918), which has been much criticised (e.g., Martin, 2002), and less ambiguously than the subsequently found Aharonov-Bohm effect (1959, 1961), which turned out to admit non-superfluous and superfluous interpretations alike (Nounou, 2003; Healey, 2007). Now it is time to assess how much the hopes bestowed on DES and IES have been fulfilled and what remains to be achieved. I will evaluate the previous developments of these empirical statuses based on notable works by other scholars (like Greaves & Wallace 2014 for DES and Brading & Brown 2000 for IES), and I will suggest some avenues forward based on my own research (including Chasova, 2019 for DES and a more recent work-in-progress for IES). 

References 

Aharonov Y., Bohm D. (1959), “Significance of electromagnetic potentials in the quantum theory”, Physical Review 115(3): 485–491. 

Aharonov Y., Bohm D. (1961), “Further considerations on electromagnetic potentials in the quantum theory”, Physical Review 123(4): 1511–1524. 

Brading K., Brown H. (2000), “Noether's theorems and gauge symmetries”, arXiv : [ https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0009058 | https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0009058 ] . 

Chasova V. (2019), Direct Empirical Status of Theoretical Symmetries in Physics , PhD thesis under the supervision of Alexandre Guay, defended at the UCLouvain on 27 May 2019, available at [ https://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/216833 | https://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/216833 ] . 

Clarke S. (1717), A Collection of Papers, Which passed between the late Learned Mr. Leibnitz, and Dr. Clarke, in the years 1715 and 1716 , available at [ http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00224 | http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00224 ] . 

Earman J., Norton J. (1987), “What price spacetime substantivalism? The hole story”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38(4): 515–525. 

Greaves H., Wallace D. (2014), “Empirical consequences of symmetries”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 65: 59–89. 

Healey R. (2007), Gauging What's Real: The Conceptual Foundations of Gauge Theories , Oxford University Press. 

Kosso P. (2000), “The empirical status of symmetries in physics”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51(1): 81–98. 

Martin C. (2002), “Gauge principles, gauge arguments and the logic of nature”, Philosophy of Science 69: S221–S234. 

Nounou A. (2003), “A fourth way to the Aharonov-Bohm effect”, pp. 174–199 in Brading K., Castellani E. (eds.), Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections , Cambridge University Press. 

Weyl H. (1918), “Gravitation und Elektrizität”, Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1918: 465–480. Translated as Weyl H. 1952, “Gravitation and electricity”, pp. 200-216 in The Principle of Relativity , Dover Publications. Also translated (including three postscripts) as Weyl H. (1997), “Gravitation and electricity”, pp. 24–37 in O'Raifeartaigh L., The Dawning of Gauge Theory , Princeton University Press. 

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