Making Models Count.

What sort of claims do scientific models make and how do these claims then underwrite empirical successes such as explanations and reliable policy interventions? In this paper I propose answers to these questions for the class of models used throughout the social and biological sciences, namely idea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophy of Science Vol. 75; no. 3; pp. 383 - 405
Main Author: Alexandrova, Anna
Format: Article
Published: Cambridge University Press Jul2008
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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Summary:What sort of claims do scientific models make and how do these claims then underwrite empirical successes such as explanations and reliable policy interventions? In this paper I propose answers to these questions for the class of models used throughout the social and biological sciences, namely idealized deductive ones with a causal interpretation. I argue that the two main existing accounts misrepresent how these models are actually used, and propose a new account.