Spring 2019 Colloquium Series - 1 February
February 01, 2019
Samuel Schindler, Aarhus University :: Model Fictions, Structural Necessitation, and Explanatory Liberalism
Friday, February 1, 2019
Abstract: Some philosophers have argued that scientific models can explain their targets despite representationally distorting them. In this paper, I propose an account of model explanation based on the notion of structural necessitation, namely the representation of empirical regularities as necessities within a model. Although my account is much more liberal than its competitors, the notion of structural necessitation it is strong enough to help us avoid explanatory anarchism.
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Talks are held at the Burnaby Campus in room WMC 3250 from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m., unless otherwise indicated. They are free and open to the public.