Reconstructing reality : models, mathematics, and simulations / Margaret Morrison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morrison, Margaret, 1954- author.

Series:

Oxford studies in philosophy of science.

Oxford studies in philosophy of science

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Mathematical models.

Science.

Physics--Mathematical models.

Physics.

Mathematics--Philosophy.

Mathematics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 334 pages) : illustrations (black and white).

Other Title:

Models, mathematics, and simulations

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This text examines issues related to the way modelling and simulation enable us to reconstruct aspects of the world we are investigating. It also investigates the processes by which we extract concrete knowledge from those reconstructions and how that knowledge is legitimated.

Contents:

Part One: Mathematics, Explanation and Understanding

Chapter One: Abstraction and Idealisation: Understanding via Models

Chapter Two: From the Pure to the Concrete: How Mathematics Yields Physical Information

Part Two: Where Models Meet the World: Problems and Perspectives

Chapter Three: More than Make-Believe: Fictions, Models and Reality

Chapter Four: Mediated Knowledge: Representation and The Theory-Model Axis

Chapter Five: Making the Best of It: Inconsistent vs. Complementary Models

Part Three: Computer Simulation: The New Reality

Chapter Six: Why Materiality is Not Enough: Models, Measurement and Computer Simulation

Chapter Seven: Legitimating Simulation: Methodological Issues of Verification and Validation

Chapter Eight: Without it there's Nothing: The Necessity of Simulation in the Higgs Search.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on December 18, 2014).

ISBN:

9780199380299

0199380295

9780199380282

0199380287