260032 Model-Building in the Sciences - Shifted to Cyberspace (GradS) (SoSe 2020)

Models have gained prominence as a chief tool of scientific work. They are more specific than theories and laws of nature but more general than observations. Models are often thought to consist of generalizations, initial and boudary conditions, and a story of sorts or a narrative. In this sense models are mediators between theories and phenomena.
Various approaches to models and model-building differ regarding the relative importance granted to the general and the specific elements, respectively. Accordingly, models may serve to unify a realm of phenomena by bringing out essential common ground, or they may give a tailor-made account of a narrow domain. The latter accomplishment is important for meeting the practical challenges science is faced with today. The use of idealizations may be due to pragmatic concerns, but also strengthen the first-mentioned, unifying effect of models and thus serve descriptive purposes as well. Accordingly, idealizations may promote the transfer of models to other domains. Such interdisciplinary models migrate through various fields and in this way interlace these fields.
We will read recent texts on model-building, most of which are related to the physical sciences.

Bibliography

Weisberg, Michael (2013)
Simulation and Similarity. Using Models to Understand the World, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gelfert, Axel (2016)
How to Do Science with Models. A Philosophical Primer, Springer.