The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk

(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)

by

James ladyman (university of bristol)

on

observing symmetries in physics

Tuesday, 24 February 2015, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412

ABSTRACT

There is a debate about whether so-called local symmetries in physics have direct empirical consequences. In this paper I defend the orthodoxy according to which they don’t against a recent argument by Hilary Greaves and David Wallace. In the course of doing so I will first explain what physical symmetries are, emphasising the distinction between transformations of representations and transformations of physical systems, and then the differences between various kinds of symmetry. I will then explicate the nature of so-called ‘Galileo’s Ship Scenarios’, and go on to argue that that so far it has not been shown that there are any that are only explicable by local symmetries.