Fictions in Science - Philosophical Essays on Modeling and Idealization

Zusammenfassung Science is popularly understood as being an ideal of impartial algorithmic objectivity that provides a realistic description of the world. The essays collected in this book challenge this popular image right at its heart, taking as their starting point that science trades not only in truth, but in fiction. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments Part I: INTRODUCTION Fictions in Scientific Practice (Mauricio Suárez) Part II: THE NATURE OF FICTIONS IN SCIENCE 2. Fictionalism (Arthur Fine) 3. Laboratory Fictions (Joseph Rouse) 4. Models as Fictions (Anouk Barberousse and Pascal Ludwig) Part III: THE EXPLANATORY POWER OF FICTIONS 5. Exemplification, Idealization, and Scientific Understanding (Catherine Elgin) 6. Explanatory Fictions (Alisa Bokulich) 7. Fictions, Representations and Reality (Margaret Morrison) Part IV: FICTIONS IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES 8. When Does a Scientific Theory Describe Reality? (Carsten Held) 9. Scientific Fictions as Rules of Inference (Mauricio Suárez) 10. A Function for Fictions: Expanding the Scope of Science (Eric Winsberg) Part V: FICTIONS IN THE SPECIAL SCIENCES 11. Model Organisms as Fictions (Rachel Ankeny) 12. Representation, Idealization and Fiction in Economics: From the Assumptions Issue to the Epistemology of Modeling (Tarja Knuuttila) Part VI: FICTIONS AND REALISM 13. Fictions, Fictionalization and Truth in Science (Paul Teller) 14. Why Scientific Models Should Not Be Regarded as Works of Fiction (Ronald N. Giere) Notes on Contributors Bibliography Index

Product details

• Authors: Mauricio Suarez, Mauricio (Complutense University Suarez
• Assisted by: Mauricio Suárez (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 10.11.2010
• EAN: 9780415887922
• ISBN: 978-0-415-88792-2
• No. of pages: 290
• Series: Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); PHILOSOPHY / General, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Modern, Philosophy, SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, Philosophy of Science, Literature: history & criticism, Literature: history and criticism