Symmetry: a bridge between nature and culture

TL;DR

This paper explores the philosophical and scientific significance of symmetry, examining whether symmetries are discovered or invented, and how physics informs this debate about nature and culture.

Contribution

It offers a philosophical analysis of symmetry's role in bridging scientific understanding and cultural interpretation, emphasizing physics' influence on this debate.

Findings

Physics informs the debate on whether symmetries are discovered or invented.

Symmetry serves as a bridge between scientific and cultural perspectives.

The paper highlights the epistemological implications of symmetry in science and philosophy.

Abstract

Are symmetries discovered or rather invented by humans ? The stand you may take firmly here reveals a lot of your epistemological position. Conversely, the arguments you may forge for answering to this question, or to one of its numerous narrower or broader variations, shape your whole philosophical thoughts; not specifically about science, by the way. I will try to show how physics helps to (re)consider this issue.