Making the abstract concrete: The role of norms and values in experimental modeling |
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Authors: | Isabelle F. Peschard Bas C. van Fraassen |
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Affiliation: | 1. University of South Carolina and University of Helsinki, Department of Philosophy, 901 Sumter Street, Byrnes Bldg., Columbia, SC 29208, USA;2. Département de Philosophie, Université de Genève, 2, rue de Candolle, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland;1. Department of Philosophy, 135 Baker Hall, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15217, USA;2. Department of Philosophy, Wichita State University, 1845 North Fairmount, Campus Box 74, Wichita, KS 67260-0074, USA;1. Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie évolutive, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 – Bât. Grégor Mendel, 43 bd du 11 novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France;2. Institut d''Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne Paris 1, France |
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Abstract: | Experimental modeling is the construction of theoretical models hand in hand with experimental activity. As explained in Section 1, experimental modeling starts with claims about phenomena that use abstract concepts, concepts whose conditions of realization are not yet specified; and it ends with a concrete model of the phenomenon, a model that can be tested against data. This paper argues that this process from abstract concepts to concrete models involves judgments of relevance, which are irreducibly normative. In Section 2, we show, on the basis of several case studies, how these judgments contribute to the determination of the conditions of realization of the abstract concepts and, at the same time, of the quantities that characterize the phenomenon under study. Then, in Section 3, we compare this view on modeling with other approaches that also have acknowledged the role of relevance judgments in science. To conclude, in Section 4, we discuss the possibility of a plurality of relevance judgments and introduce a distinction between locally and generally relevant factors. |
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Keywords: | Relevance judgments Relevant factors Model Theory Experiment Phenomenon Norm Value Experimental modeling Concrete models Abstract concepts Data generating procedure Plurality |
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