Inference and Representation: A Study in Modeling Science - Softcover

Suárez, Mauricio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226830047 ISBN 13: 9780226830049

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2024

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Mauricio Suárez is professor of logic and philosophy of science at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a life member at Clare Hall Cambridge. He is the author of Philosophy of Probability and Statistical Modelling.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226830047
• ISBN 13: 9780226830049
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328