Fletcher, Samuel C.
(2018)
Similarity Structure on Scientific Theories.
[Preprint]
Abstract
I review and amplify on some of the many uses of representing a scientific theory in a particular context as a collection of models endowed with a similarity structure, which encodes the ways in which those models are similar to one another. This structure, which is related to topological structure, proves fruitful in the analysis of a variety of issues central to the philosophy of science. These include intertheoretic reduction, emergent properties, the epistemic connections between modeling and inference, the semantics of counterfactual conditionals, and laws of nature. The morals are twofold: first, the further adoption of formal methods for describing similarity (and related topological) structure has the potential to aid in decisive progress in philosophy of science; and second, the selection and justification of such structure is not a matter of technical convenience, but rather often involves great conceptual and philosophical subtlety. I conclude with various directions for future research.
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