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Models, Theories, and Structures: Thirty Years On

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Newton da Costa  and
Steven French
Newton da Costa*
Affiliation:
University of São Paulo
Steven French
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
*
†Send requests for reprints to S. French, Division of History and Philosophy of Science, School of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK; da Costa: Department of Philosophy, University of São Paulo, São Paulo S.P., Brazil.
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Abstract

Thirty years after the conference that gave rise to The Structure of Scientific Theories, there is renewed interest in the nature of theories and models. However, certain crucial issues from thirty years ago are reprised in current discussions; specifically: whether the diversity of models in the science can be captured by some unitary account; and whether the temporal dimension of scientific practice can be represented by such an account. After reviewing recent developments we suggest that these issues can be accommodated within the partial structures formulation of the semantic or model-theoretic approach.

Type
Metaphilosophy and the History of the Philosophy of Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 67 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers Sep., 2000 , 2000 , pp. S116 - S127
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

We would like to thank Otavio Bueno, John Christie, Mary Domski, Grant Fisher, Jon Hodge, and James Ladyman for useful comments on this work. An earlier version was presented to the informal Research Workshop of the Division of History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds.

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