Abstract
R. J. Boscovich (1711–1787) is best known for his unified theory of natural phenomena of 1758, based on the notion of centrally interacting point-particles. While addressing contemporaneous scientific questions, his natural philosophy also systematically integrated many methodological and metaphysical ideas related to the pursuits of natural philosophy. One such excursion is Boscovich's treatment of what we today consider physical symmetries. In this paper I suggest a comprehensive interpretation of his comments on physical symmetries. I give special emphasis to Boscovich's notable inclusion of a re-scaling transformation among better known symmetries of Newtonian physics and show that it instantiates a generalization of standard dynamical symmetries. My interpretation shows that Boscovich's position results not only from his theory of matter (or basic ontology) but also from his explicit metaphysics and epistemology of space and time and his views on nomological possibility.
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