Idealized models, holistic distortions, and universality.

In this paper, I first argue against various attempts to justify idealizations in scientific models that explain by showing that they are harmless and isolable distortions of irrelevant features. In response, I propose a view in which idealized models are characterized as providing holistically dist...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 195; no. 6; pp. 2795 - 2820
Autor principal: Rice, Collin
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jun2018
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper, I first argue against various attempts to justify idealizations in scientific models that explain by showing that they are harmless and isolable distortions of irrelevant features. In response, I propose a view in which idealized models are characterized as providing holistically distorted representations of their target system(s). I then suggest an alternative way that idealized modeling can be justified by appealing to universality.