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A pragmatic approach to the ontology of models
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Abstract:
What are scientific models? Philosophers of science have been trying to answer this question during the last three decades by putting forward a number of different proposals. Some say that models are best understood as abstract Platonic objects or fictional entities akin to Sherlock Holmes, while others focus on their mathematical nature and see them as set theoretical structures. Although each account has its own strengths in offering various insights on the nature of models, several objections have been raised against these views which still remain unanswered, making the debate on the ontology of models seem unresolvable. The primary aim of this paper is to show that a large part of these difficulties stems from an inappropriate reading of the main question on the ontology of models as a purely metaphysical question. Building on Carnap, it is argued that the question of the ontology of scientific models is either (i) an internal theoretical question within an already accepted linguistic framework or (ii) an external practical question regarding the choice of the most appropriate form of language in order to describe and explain the practice of scientific modelling. The main implication of this view is that the question of the ontology of models becomes a means of probing other related questions regarding the overall practice of scientific modelling, such as questions on the capacity of models to provide knowledge and the relation of models with background theories.
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Keyword:
History of Philosophy of Science; Logical Positivism/Logical Empiricism; Models and Idealization; Scientific Metaphysics
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URL: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/18709/ http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/18709/1/Pragmatism%20on%20models%20-%20Synthese%20Final.pdf
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Humans do not reason from contradictory premises. The psychological aspects of paraconsistency.
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Introductory Textbooks in the Philosophy of Science: the Transformation of the Study Curriculum From 1937 to 2017
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Epistemic diversity and the question of Lingua Franca in science and philosophy
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Friedrich Waismann : eine historisch-philosophische Betrachtung
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Language, Necessity and Convention: Reconsidering the Linguistic Approach to Modality ...
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Language, Necessity and Convention: Reconsidering the Linguistic Approach to Modality
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Nyseth, Fredrik. - : University of Cambridge, 2018. : Faculty of Philosophy, 2018. : Wolfson College, 2018
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Das Verhältnis zwischen den Begriffen "Erfahrung" und "Sprache" ausgehend von Hans-Georg Gadamers Wahrheit und Methode : eine antireduktionistische Lesart gegen Relativismusvorwürfe
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BLLDB
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UB Frankfurt Linguistik
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Von der logischen Analyse der Sprache zur rationalen Rekonstruktion von Theorien : eine Untersuchung zum Problem der theoretischen Begriffe im logischen Empirismus und im Strukturalismus
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BLLDB
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UB Frankfurt Linguistik
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What's Right With a Syntactic Approach to Theories and Models?
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