Lehtinen, Aki
(2024)
Imagination and fiction in modelling; An epistemic critique.
[Preprint]
Abstract
This paper criticises the Waltonian fictional view for providing a misleading role of imagination in scientific modelling, and for failing to provide an adequate account of the epistemology of modelling. Imagination cannot simultaneously be constrained by the model descriptions and be relevant for modelling epistemology. Since the relevant inferences must be made in terms of model descriptions, the laws and general principles must be included in them. It follows that model content cannot be defined by combining principles of indirect generation with model descriptions. An alternative epistemic account of model content is proposed instead. More generally, it is argued that the central notions of prescribed imagination, props and principles of generation should be abandoned because they confuse more than clarify the philosophy of modelling.
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