What is it about?
This paper critically analyzes the so-called fiction-view of scientific modeling, which exploits presumed analogies between literary fiction and model building in science. The basic idea is that in both fiction and scientific modeling fictional worlds are created. The paper argues that the fiction-view comes closest to certain scientific thought experiments. But it then concludes that the dissimilarities prevail over the similarities and offers an alternative view of scientific representation.
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Why is it important?
The paper offers a new account of representation in scientific modeling, which emphasizes the role of empirical, theoretical and other constraints in model building.
Perspectives
This paper should be of interest to readers who have wondered, like me, how scientific theories manage to represent the external world.
Friedel Weinert
University of Bradford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Hypothetical, not Fictional Worlds, Kairos Journal of Philosophy & Science, January 2016, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/kjps-2016-0019.
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