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Idealizations and analogies: Explaining critical phenomena
Authors:Quentin Rodriguez
Institution:1. Via Casona, 7, 40043, Marzabotto, Italy;2. IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca, Italy;1. Department of Philosophy, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey;2. Department of Mathematics, University of Innsbruck, Austria;1. University of Urbino, DISPeA, Via Timoteo Viti 10, 61029, Urbino PU, Italy;2. Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva, rue de Candolle 5, CH-1211, Genève 4, Switzerland
Abstract:The “universality” of critical phenomena is much discussed in philosophy of scientific explanation, idealizations and philosophy of physics. Lange and Reutlinger recently opposed Batterman concerning the role of some deliberate distortions in unifying a large class of phenomena, regardless of microscopic constitution. They argue for an essential explanatory role for “commonalities” rather than that of idealizations. Building on Batterman's insight, this article aims to show that assessing the differences between the universality of critical phenomena and two paradigmatic cases of “commonality strategy”—the ideal gas model and the harmonic oscillator model—is necessary to avoid the objections raised by Lange and Reutlinger. Taking these universal explanations as benchmarks for critical phenomena reveals the importance of the different roles played by analogies underlying the use of the models. A special combination of physical and formal analogies allows one to explain the epistemic autonomy of the universality of critical phenomena through an explicative loop.
Keywords:Explanation  Universality  Unification  Models  Idealization  Analogy
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