The types of scientific models in philosophy of science
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Course
Science & Reason (V7080)
Institution
University Of Sussex (UoS)
These are lecture notes for philosophy of science about scientific modelling and the ways in which certain types of models are useful and also about their drawbacks.
Physical models are useful but to a point. A 1 to 100 model of a ship, for example,
isn’t going to have 100 times less water resistance as the actual ship. It’s not going to
be made of the same materials either.
Analogical models
“Two things are analogous of there are certain relevant similarities between them.”
– Frigg
Positive (properties that are shared) and negative (properties that are not shared)
Neutral analogies – “the neutral analogy consists of accepted propositions about (S)
for which it is not known whether an analogue holds in (T).” – SEP
In a neutral analogy we have one thing with the properties that we accept, but we
don’t yet know of a second thing which can be analogous to the first.
“Neutral analogies play an important role in scientific research because they give rise
to questions and suggest new hypotheses.” – Frigg
Idealised models
These are simplified versions of something that’s complicated so that we can
understand it better.
E.g., frictionless planes, point masses, completely isolated systems, omniscient and
fully rational agents, markets in perfect equilibrium
Aristotelian idealisations – getting rid of properties that we think wouldn’t have
much effect on the result.
“Galilean idealizations are ones that involve deliberate distortions: physicists build
models consisting of point masses moving on frictionless planes; economists assume
that agents are omniscient; biologists study isolated populations.”
Toy models
Akerlof (1970) – car market, “The market for lemons”, about asymmetric
information.
Minimal models
Highly simplified, argued that many economic models are minimal models.
Phenomenological models
They “only represent observable properties of their targets and refrain from
postulating hidden mechanisms and the like.” – Frigg
Exploratory models
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