Citation

Tee, Sim Hui (2019) Constructing reality with models. Synthese, 196 (11). pp. 4605-4622. ISSN 0039-7857

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Abstract

Scientific models are used to predict and understand the target phenomena in the reality. The kind of epistemic relationship between the model and the reality is always regarded by most of the philosophers as a representational one. I argue that, complementary to this representational role, some of the scientific models have a constructive role to play in altering and reconstructing the reality in a physical way. I hold that the idealized model assumptions and elements bestow the constructive force of a model on the reality. By recognizing the physical constructive force of some scientific models, the merit of these models could be judged by how successful they are in the reality construction, rather than by the traditional criterion of model-world representation.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Constructive realism, Models, Reality, Constructive models, Instruments, Idealized model elements, Idealization
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM)
Depositing User:	Ms Rosnani Abd Wahab
Date Deposited:	11 Nov 2020 14:59
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2020 14:59
URII:	http://shdl.mmu.edu.my/id/eprint/7352

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