Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-27T23:12:27.785Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Overextending Partial Structures: Idealization and Abstraction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Christopher Pincock
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The partial structures program of da Costa, French and others offers a unified framework within which to handle a wide range of issues central to contemporary philosophy of science. I argue that the program is inadequately equipped to account for simple cases where idealizations are used to construct abstract, mathematical models of physical systems. These problems show that da Costa and French have not overcome the objections raised by Cartwright and Suárez to using model-theoretic techniques in the philosophy of science. However, my concerns arise independently of the more controversial assumptions that Cartwright and Suárez have employed.

Type
Science Models
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2005 , pp. 1248 - 1259
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Otávio Bueno, Steven French, Sean Stidd, Mauricio Suárez, and Susan Vineberg for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

References

Cartwright, Nancy (1999), The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
da Costa, Newton C. A., and French, Steven (2003), Science and Partial Truth: A Unitary Approach to Models and Scientific Reasoning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French, Steven (2003), “A Model-Theoretic Account of Representation”, A Model-Theoretic Account of Representation 70:1472–1483.Google Scholar
French, Steven, and Ladyman, James (1997), “Superconductivity and Structures: Revisiting the London Account”, Superconductivity and Structures: Revisiting the London Account 28:363–393.Google Scholar
French, Steven, and Ladyman, James (1998), “A Semantic Perspective on Idealization in Quantum Mechanics”, in Shanks, Niall (ed.), Idealization IX: Idealization in Contemporary Physics. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 51–73.Google Scholar
Herfel, William, Krajewski, Wladlyslaw, Niiniluoto, Ilkka, and Wójcicki, Ryszard, eds. (1995), Theories and Models in Scientific Processes. Amsterdam: Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMullin, Ernan (1985), “Galilean Idealization”, Galilean Idealization 16:247–273.Google Scholar
Morgan, Mary, and Morrison, Margaret, eds. (1999), Models as Mediators: Perspectives on Natural and Social Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shanks, Niall, ed. (1998), Idealization IX: Idealization in Contemporary Physics. Amsterdam: Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez, Mauricio (1999), “The Role of Models in the Application of Scientific Theories: Epistemological Implications”, in Morgan, Mary and Morrison, Margaret (eds.), Models as Mediators: Perspectives on Natural and Social Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 168–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez, Mauricio (2003), “Scientific Representation: Against Similarity and Isomorphism”, Scientific Representation: Against Similarity and Isomorphism 17:225–244.Google Scholar
Suárez, Mauricio (2004), “An Inferential Conception of Scientific Representation”, Philosophy of Science (Proceedings) 71:767–779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez, Mauricio (forthcoming), “Experimental Realism Defended: How Inference to the Most Likely Cause Might Be Sound”, in Hartmann, Stephan and Bovens, Luc (eds.), Nancy Cartwright’s Philosophy of Science. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Thornton, Stephen T., and Marion, Jerry B. (1995), Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, 4th ed. Fort Worth, TX: Saunders College Publishing.Google Scholar