本专题集集中讨论了物理学哲学中许多与辩论有关的问题，这些问题与物理学中的对称性和非对称性有关。这项编辑计划的思想源于客座编辑组织或共同组织的一系列会议和讲习班，即汉诺威莱布尼兹大学哲学研究所的“物理学中的对称性和非对称性”会议（7月7日） – 2017年8月8日），在路德维希·马克西米利安斯大学慕尼黑数学哲学中心举办的“有无测量：对称和对称破坏”研讨会（2017年6月20日）和在纽约举行的“物理的对称与等价”研讨会萨尔茨堡大学哲学系（2019年9月3日至4日）。该馆藏包括在这些活动中发表的一些贡献以及通过论文征集选出的文章。下面我们首先讨论与物理学中的对称性和非对称性主题密切相关的主要哲学问题，然后简要介绍对这一集合的个人贡献。从历史上看，对称的概念既有美学基础，又有几何基础，最初是指组成规则几何图形的不同元素之间的比例和和谐，从而传达出整体的美感和统一感。随后，对称性概念开始涉及在不改变整个图形的情况下互换图形的不同部分的可能性，例如，当人们对正方形的两半进行对角线的反射时。然后将等效零件的几何互换性推广到抽象的代数对象，从而根据给定的变换组对不变性方面的对称性进行现代理解。这使得 The present Topical Collection focuses on a cluster of much debated issues in the philosophy of physics having to do with the topic of symmetries and asymmetries in physics. The idea behind this editorial initiative had its origin in a series of conferences and workshops that the Guest Editors organized or co-organized, namely the conference “Symmetries and Asymmetries in Physics” at the Institute of Philosophy at the Leibniz University of Hannover (July 7–8, 2017), the workshop “With and without Measure: Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking” in the Munich Centre for Mathematical Philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians University (June 20, 2017), and the workshop “Symmetry and Equivalence in Physics” at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Salzburg (September 3–4, 2019). The collection includes some of the contributions presented at these events as well as articles selected through a Call for Papers. Below we first discuss the main philosophical issues germane to the topic of symmetries and asymmetries in physics, and then briefly introduce the individual contributions to this collection. Historically, the concept of symmetry has both aesthetical and geometrical underpinnings and originally referred to the proportion and harmony between the distinct elements composing regular geometric figures, thereby conveying a sense of beauty and unity of the whole. Subsequently the notion of symmetry began to refer to the possibility of interchanging different parts of a figure without changing the whole figure, for example when one carries out the reflection of the two halves of a square with respect to a diagonal. The geometrical interchangeability of equivalent parts was then generalized to abstract algebraic objects, thus leading to the modern understanding of symmetries in terms of invariance under a given group of transformations. This makes