Bursten, Julia (2020) Surface Tension: Conceptual Challenges in Modeling Nanoscale Material Surfaces. [Preprint]
|
Text
20200213SurfacesD0.2.pdf Download (283kB) | Preview |
Abstract
All solid and liquid materials have surfaces, and surfaces typically exhibit different physical and chemical properties and behaviors than the bulk or interior of the materials they contain. The properties and behaviors of surfaces are, thus, a universal feature of materials and a perennial object of study in the physical sciences. One important way in which this study manifests is in the modeling of materials. Contemporary philosophy of science has taken a strong interest in the epistemology of scientific modeling, and recently, particular attention has been given to the conceptual, epistemic, ontological, and practical challenges posed by multiscale modeling. Representing surface properties and behaviors within a wider context of material behavior is often a goal of constructing multiscale models of materials. Despite this, and despite that much philosophical literature on multiscale modeling addresses models in physics, little has so far been said about the challenges associated with modeling material surfaces. Further, nanoscale materials present a variety of practical, theoretical, and conceptual challenges for traditional approaches to modeling the physical and chemical behavior of materials. In this article, I examine how two distinct approaches to modeling surfaces arise from two distinct conceptions of what a surface is. I call these the "boundary on a body" conception and the "outermost layer" conception, and I show how the distinction both underwrites different modeling strategies and threatens reductive approaches to the epistemology of modeling.
Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
Social Networking: |
Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Creators: |
|
||||||
Keywords: | physics, modeling, nanomaterials, nanoscience, surfaces, reduction | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Chemistry Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism General Issues > Structure of Theories |
||||||
Depositing User: | Julia Bursten | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 08 Jun 2020 02:03 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 08 Jun 2020 02:03 | ||||||
Item ID: | 17287 | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Chemistry Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism General Issues > Structure of Theories |
||||||
Date: | 2020 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17287 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
View Item |