McLoone, Brian (2019) Thumper the Infinitesimal Rabbit: A Fictionalist Perspective on Some "Unimaginable" Model Systems in Biology. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Fictionalists believe that scientific models are about model systems that are imaginary. Michael Weisberg has claimed that fictionalism is indefensible because many scientific models are about model systems that are unimaginable. According to a certain account of imagination, what Weisberg says is plausible. According to another, more defensible account of imagination, it is not. I discuss these issues within the context of an allegedly unimaginable model system in ecology, but the conclusions I draw are more general. I then describe how fictionalism should be recast in order to deal with Weisberg’s critique.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID McLoone, Brian brianbmcloone@gmail.com 0000-0002-2622-4104
Keywords:	fictionalism, imagination, models
Subjects:	General Issues > Models and Idealization
Depositing User:	Dr. Brian McLoone
Date Deposited:	22 Jun 2019 13:41
Last Modified:	22 Jun 2019 13:41
Item ID:	16142
Official URL:	https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1...
DOI or Unique Handle:	https://doi.org/10.1086/704976
Subjects:	General Issues > Models and Idealization
Date:	2019
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16142

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