Nyrup, Rune (Author)
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Volume: 71
Issue: 3
Pages: 881-903
This article highlights a use of analogies in science that so far has received relatively little systematic discussion: providing reasons for pursuing a model or theory. Using the development of the liquid drop model as a test case, I critically assess two extant pursuit worthiness accounts: (i) that analogies justify pursuit by supporting plausibility arguments and (ii) that analogies can serve as a guide to potential theoretical unification. Neither of these fit the liquid drop model case. Instead, I develop an alternative account, based on the idea that analogies facilitate the transfer of a well-understood modelling strategy to a new domain. 1. Introduction2. Case Study: The Development of the Liquid Drop Model3. Plausibility Accounts 3.1. Bartha on plausibility and analogical inference3.2. Plausibility and the drop analogy4. Analogies as a Guide to Unification5. Generative Accounts 5.1. Analogy-based modelling strategies5.2. Did analogies play a merely generative role?6. A New Pursuit Worthiness Account of Analogies 6.1. Transferring understanding-with through analogies6.2. Understanding-with and the liquid drop model7. Conclusion
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Silva, Cibelle Celestino;
(2007)
The Role of Models and Analogies in the Electromagnetic Theory: A Historical Case Study
(/isis/citation/CBB001032896/)
Book
Arnon Levy;
Peter Godfrey-Smith;
(2019)
The Scientific Imagination: Philosophical & Psychological Perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB335423894/)
Book
Nersessian, Nancy;
(2008)
Creating Scientific Concepts
(/isis/citation/CBB000950311/)
Book
Keller, Evelyn Fox;
(2002)
Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines
(/isis/citation/CBB000201434/)
Chapter
Gentner, Dedre;
(2002)
Analogy in Scientific Discovery: The Case of Johannes Kepler
(/isis/citation/CBB000202429/)
Article
Marcel Humar;
(2021)
Metaphors as models: Towards a typology of metaphor in ancient science
(/isis/citation/CBB674202300/)
Article
Schummer, Joachim;
(2000)
Models in Chemistry (2): Molecular Models
(/isis/citation/CBB000101910/)
Chapter
Andersen, Hanne;
(2002)
The Development of Scientific Taxonomies
(/isis/citation/CBB000202430/)
Article
Manning, Gideon;
(2012)
Analogy and Falsification in Descartes' Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB001221698/)
Article
Shelley, Cameron;
(2002)
Analogy Counterarguments and the Acceptability of Analogical Hypotheses
(/isis/citation/CBB000410708/)
Article
Remington J. Moll;
Daniel Steel;
Robert A. Montgomery;
(2016)
AIC and the challenge of complexity: A case study from ecology
(/isis/citation/CBB078857465/)
Article
Niebergall, Karl-Georg;
(2002)
Structuralism, Model Theory and Reduction
(/isis/citation/CBB000200017/)
Article
Claudia Cristalli;
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen;
(2021)
Abstraction and Generalization in the Logic of Science: Cases from Nineteenth-Century Scientific Practice
(/isis/citation/CBB855367059/)
Article
(2000)
The Structure of Scientific Theories Thirty Years On
(/isis/citation/CBB000110615/)
Book
Magnani, Lorenzo;
Nersessian, Nancy J.;
(2002)
Model Based Reasoning: Science, Technology, Values
(/isis/citation/CBB000201255/)
Book
Buchwald, Jed Z.;
Warwick, Andrew;
(2001)
Histories of the Electron: The Birth of Microphysics
(/isis/citation/CBB000102088/)
Article
(2000)
Toward a New Understanding of Scientific Success
(/isis/citation/CBB000110609/)
Article
Glennan, Stuart;
(2005)
Modeling Mechanisms
(/isis/citation/CBB000770698/)
Article
Carl F. Craver;
David M. Kaplan;
(2020)
Are More Details Better? On the Norms of Completeness for Mechanistic Explanations
(/isis/citation/CBB621951199/)
Article
Fiora Salis;
(2021)
The New Fiction View of Models
(/isis/citation/CBB270986404/)
Be the first to comment!