Sánchez-Dorado, Julia (2025) The Earth in the Model: The nomothetic, idiographic, and plural epistemic aims of planetary modelling. [Preprint]

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Abstract

The nineteenth-century distinction between the nomothetic and the idiographic approach to scientific inquiry can provide valuable insight into the epistemic challenges faced in contemporary earth modelling. However, as it stands, the nomothetic-idiographic dichotomy does not fully encompass the range of modelling commitments and trade-offs that geoscientists need to navigate in their practice. Adopting a historical epistemology perspective, I propose to further spell out this dichotomy as a set of modelling decisions concerning historicity, model complexity, scale, and closure. Then, I suggest that, to address the challenges posed by these decisions, a pluralist stance towards the cognitive aims of earth modelling should be endorsed, especially
beyond predictive aims.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Sánchez-Dorado, Julia juliasanchezdorado@gmail.com
Keywords:	models, Earth science, idealization, scale, earth modelling
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Climate Science and Meteorology Specific Sciences > Earth Sciences Specific Sciences > Historical Sciences General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Models and Idealization General Issues > Values In Science
Depositing User:	Julia Sanchez-Dorado
Date Deposited:	18 Apr 2025 16:38
Last Modified:	18 Apr 2025 16:38
Item ID:	25087
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Climate Science and Meteorology Specific Sciences > Earth Sciences Specific Sciences > Historical Sciences General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Models and Idealization General Issues > Values In Science
Date:	2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25087

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