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There Is No Special Problem About Scientific Representation

Callender, Craig and Cohen, Jonathan (2005) There Is No Special Problem About Scientific Representation. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In recent years, philosophers of science have devoted considerable attention to questions about scientific models, and particularly to the issue of how models can represent the world. We propose that scientific representation is best understood as a special case of a more general notion of representation, and that the relatively well worked-out and plausible philosophical theories of the latter are directly applicable to the scientific special case. Construing scientific representation in this way makes the so-called ``problem of scientific representation'' look much less interesting than it has seemed to many, and also suggests that some of the (hotly contested) debates in the literature are concerned with non-issues.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Callender, Craig
Cohen, Jonathan
Keywords: representation; models; idealization; realism
Subjects: General Issues > Structure of Theories
General Issues > Models and Idealization
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Depositing User: Craig Callender
Date Deposited: 26 Jan 2005
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:13
Item ID: 2177
Subjects: General Issues > Structure of Theories
General Issues > Models and Idealization
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Date: January 2005
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/2177

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