Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T18:26:11.082Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Scientific Models and the Semantic View of Scientific Theories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Demetris P. Portides
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I argue against the conception of scientific models advocated by the proponents of the Semantic View of scientific theories. Part of the paper is devoted to clarifying the important features of the scientific modeling view that the Semantic conception entails. The liquid drop model of nuclear structure is analyzed in conjunction with the particular auxiliary hypothesis that is the guiding force behind its construction and it is argued that it does not meet the necessary features to render it a model of the theory, as the Semantic View demands. Given that this model is indicative of how quantum mechanics is applied in the domain of nuclear physics, I claim that the Semantic View does not adequately account for scientific models.

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. 1287 - 1298
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.)

References

Cartwright, Nancy (1983), How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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 (1990), “The Model-Theoretic Approach in the Philosophy of Science”, The Model-Theoretic Approach in the Philosophy of Science 57:248–265.Google Scholar
da Costa, Newton C. A., and French, Steven (2003), Science and Partial Truth. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald (1988), Explaining Science: A Cognitive Approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Mary S., and Morrison, Margaret, eds. (1999), Models as Mediators: Perspectives on Natural and Social Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, Margaret (1999), “Models as Autonomous Agents”, in Morgan, Mary S. and Morrison, Margaret (eds.), Models as Mediators: Perspectives on Natural and Social Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 38–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moszkowski, Steven A. (1957), “Models of Nuclear Structure”, Models of Nuclear Structure 39:411–550.Google Scholar
Nelson, Robert A., and Olsson, M. G. (1986), “The Pendulum—Rich Physics from a Simple System”, The Pendulum—Rich Physics from a Simple System 54:112–121.Google Scholar
Portides, Demetris (2005), “A Theory of Scientific Model Construction: The Conceptual Process of Abstraction and Concretisation”, A Theory of Scientific Model Construction: The Conceptual Process of Abstraction and Concretisation 10:67–88.Google Scholar
Portides, Demetris (2006), “The Evolutionary History of Models as Representational Agents”, in Magnani, Lorenzo (ed.), Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Engineering. London: College Publications, 87–106.Google Scholar
Suppe, Frederick, ed. (1977), The Structure of Scientific Theories. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Suppe, Frederick (1989), The Semantic Conception of Theories and Scientific Realism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Suppes, Patrick (1961), “A Comparison of the Meaning and Uses of Models in Mathematics and the Empirical Sciences”, in Freudenthal, Hans (ed.), The Concept and the Role of the Model in Mathematics and the Natural and Social Sciences. Dordrecht: Reidel, 163–177.Google Scholar
Suppes, Patrick (1962), “Models of Data”, in Nagel, Ernest, Suppes, Patrick, and Tarski, Alfred (eds.), Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 252–261.Google Scholar
Suppes, Patrick (1967), Set-Theoretical Structures in Science. Mimeographed lecture notes, Stanford University.Google Scholar
van Frassen, Bas C. (1980), The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Frassen, Bas C. (1987), “The Semantic Approach to Scientific Theories”, in Nersessian, Nancy J. (ed.), The Process of Science. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 105–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Buttlar, Haro (1968), Nuclear Physics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar