Models and Idealisation
Reading Course, Spring 2009
Details | Overview | Reading [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 ]
Details
| Location | Times |
|---|---|
| Lewis White Beck Memorial Library | Thursdays, 1:00pm to 3:00pm |
Overview
A reading course on models and idealisation, focusing on their role in explanation and confirmation. Graduate and undergraduate students are both welcome—email me for more information and permission to participate.
Reading
Meeting One (Thursday 22 January)
Jones, Martin R. 2005. “Idealization and Abstraction: A Framework”, in Martin R. Jones and Nancy Cartwright (Eds), Idealization XII: Correcting the Model: Idealization and Abstraction in the Sciences, Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, Rodopi, Amsterdam, pp. 173–218. [PDF]
Optional
McMullin, Ernan. 1985. “Galilean Idealization”, in Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part A, Vol. 16, No. 3, September 1985, pp. 247–273. [PDF]
Weisberg, Michael. 2007. “Three Kinds of Idealization”, in Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 104, No. 12, December 2007, pp. 639–659. [PDF]
Meeting Two (Thursday 29 January)
Strevens, Michael. 2007. “Why Explanations Lie: Idealization in Explanation”, unpublished draft, March 2007. [PDF]
Meeting Three (Thursday 5 February)
Elgin, Mehmet, and Sober, Elliott. 2002. “Cartwright On Explanation And Idealization”, in Erkenntnis, Vol. 57, No. 3, November 2002, pp. 441–450. [URI]
Reprinted in Earman, John, Clark Glymour, and Sandra Mitchell. 2003. Ceteris Paribus Laws, Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp. 165–174.
Meeting Four (Thursday 12 February)
Craver, Carl F. 2006. “When Mechanistic Models Explain”, in Synthese, Vol. 153, No. 3, December 2006, pp. 355–376. [URI]
Optional
Woodward, James. 2002. “What is a Mechanism? A Counterfactual Account”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 69, No. 3, Supplement 2002, S366–S377. [URI]
Meeting Five (Thursday 26 February)
Bokulich, Alisa. 2007. “How Scientific Models Can Explain”, paper presented at Models and Simulations 2, Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, October 2007. [PDF]
Optional
Bokulich, Alisa. 2008. “Can Classical Structures Explain Quantum Phenomena?”, in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 59, No. 2, June 2008, pp. 217–235. [URI]
Spring Break
Meeting Six (Thursday 19 March)
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. 2009. “Models and Fictions in Science”, in Philosophical Studies, Vol. 143, No. 1, March 2009, pp. 101–116. [PDF]
Fine, Arthur. 2009. “Science Fictions: Comment on Godfrey-Smith”, in Philosophical Studies, Vol. 143, No. 1, March 2009, pp. 117–125. [PDF]
Meeting Seven (Thursday 26 March)
Levins, Richard. 1966. “The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology”, in American Scientist, Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 421–431. [PDF]
Reprinted in Sober, Elliott. 1984. Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology: An Anthology, 1st Ed, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, pp. 18–27.
Orzack, Steven Hecht and Sober, Elliott. 1993. “A Critical Assessment of Levins's The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology (1966)”, in The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 68, No. 4, December 1993, pp. 533–546. [URI]
Optional
Levins, Richard. 1993. “A Response to Orzack and Sober: Formal Analysis and the Fluidity of Science”, in The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 68, No. 4, December 1993, pp. 547–555. [URI]
Odenbaugh, Jay. 2003. “Complex Systems, Trade-Offs, and Theoretical Population Biology: Richard Levin's Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology Revisited”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 70, No. 5, December 2003, pp. 1496–1507. [URI]
Orzack, Steven Hecht. 2003. “Discussion: What, If Anything, Is The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology? A Comment on Levins (1966) and Odenbaugh (2003)”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 72, No. 3, July 2003, pp. 479–485. [URI]
Weisberg, Michael. 2006. “Robustness Analysis”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 73, No. 5, December 2006, pp. 730–742. [URI]
Meeting Eight (Thursday 2 April)
Wimsatt, William C. 1987. “False Models as Means to Truer Theories”, in Matthew H. Nitecki and Antoni Hoffman (Eds), Neutral Models in Biology, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 23–55. [PDF]
Reprinted in Wimsatt, William C. 2007. Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, pp. 94–132.
Meeting Nine (Thursday 9 April)
Laymon, Ronald. 1980. “Idealization, Explanation, and Confirmation”, in PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 1, pp. 336–350. [URI]
Optional
Laymon, Ronald. 1982. “Scientific Realism and the Hierarchical Counterfactual Path from Data to Theory”, in PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 1, pp. 107–121. [URI]
Reprinted as “The Path from Data to Theory” in Jarrett Leplin (Ed). Scientific Realism, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984, pp. 108–123.
Laymon, Ronald. 1989. “Cartwright and the Lying Laws of Physics”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 86, No. 7, July 1989, pp. 353–372.[URI]
Liu, Chuang. 2007. “Confirming Idealized Theories and Scientific Realism”, paper presented at the LSE-Pitt Conference Confirmation, Induction and Science, London, March 2007. [URI]
Meeting Ten (Thursday 16 April)
Pincock, Christopher. forthcoming. “Modeling Reality”, in Synthese. [PDF]
Meeting Eleven (Thursday 23 April)
Shaffer, Michael J. 2001. “Bayesian Confirmation of Theories That Incorporate Idealizations”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 68, No. 1, March 2001, pp. 36–52. [URI]
Jones, Nicholaos. 2007. “Resolving the Bayesian Problem of Idealization”, paper presented at the LSE-Pitt Conference Confirmation, Induction and Science, London, March 2007. [URI]
Shaffer, Michael J. 2009. “The Empirical Confirmation of Idealized Theories”, unpublished draft—thanks to Mike for the copy and permission to post here. [PDF]
Optional
Sayan, Erdinç. 2005. “Idealizations and Approximations in Science, and the Bayesian Theory of Confirmation”, in Gürol Irzik and Güven Güzeldere (Eds), Turkish Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 244, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 103–112. [PDF]
Updated: 17 April 2008