Inference and Representation : A Study in Modeling Science.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Suárez, Mauricio.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2024.

Summary:

The first comprehensive defense of an inferential conception of scientific representation with applications to art and epistemology. Mauricio Suárez develops a conception of representation that delivers a compelling account of modeling practice. He begins by discussing the history and methodology of model building, charting the emergence of what he calls the modeling attitude, a nineteenth-century and fin de siècle development. Prominent cases of models, both historical and contemporary, are used as benchmarks for the accounts of representation considered throughout the book. After arguing against reductive naturalist theories of scientific representation, Suárez sets out his own account: a case for pluralism regarding the means of representation and minimalism regarding its constituents. He shows that scientists employ a variety of modeling relations in their representational practice-which helps them to assess the accuracy of their representations-while demonstrating that there is nothing metaphysically deep about the constituent relation that encompasses all these diverse means. The book also probes the broad implications of Suárez's inferential conception outside scientific modeling itself, covering analogies with debates about artistic representation and philosophical thought over the past several decades.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

1. Introducing Scientific Representation

Part I. Modeling

2. The Modeling Attitude: A Genealogy

3. Models and Their Uses

Part II. Representation

4. Theories of Representation

5. Against Substance

6. Scientific Theories and Deflationary Representation

7. Representation as Inference

Part III. Implications

8. Lessons from the Philosophy of Art

9. Scientific Epistemology Transformed

Notes

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Other Format:

Print version: Suárez, Mauricio Inference and Representation

ISBN:

0-226-83003-9

OCLC:

1407316182