Article ID: CBB001420762

When do Models Provide Genuine Understanding, and Why Does It Matter? (2013)

unapi

In spite of a number of remarkable advances over the last few decades, the question of how scientific models provide explanations remains rather controversial. In the case of biology, this question is quite pressing, since according to many specialists we do not find genuine universal explanatory laws in biology, and yet, biologists constantly use models as explanatory devices. It is probably not possible to reduce all of the ways in which models explain to one unifying pattern. If there is a common trait in all of these different ways it is perhaps that they achieve a better understanding of phenomena. It is argued in this paper that the notion of understanding is not irremediably subjective. Various contextual but objectively justifiable criteria are suggested in order to establish when a feeling of understanding corresponds to a genuine understanding.

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Authors & Contributors
Israel, Giorgio
Donaghy, Josephine
Dorato, Mauro
Eronen, Markus I.
Faye, Jan
Fraassen, Bas C. van
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Annual Review of Phytopathology
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Physics in Perspective
Publishers
Ashgate
Clarendon Press
Johns Hopkins University Press
Princeton University Press
Springer-Verlag
University of Exeter
Concepts
Models and modeling in science
Mathematics and its relationship to nature
Natural laws
Philosophy of science
Controversies and disputes
Biology
People
Albertus Magnus
Darwin, Charles Robert
Hubble, Edwin Powell
John of Murs
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
Medieval
Places
India
Himalayan Mountains (Nepal)
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