Can fiction and veritism go hand in hand?

The epistemology of models has to face a conundrum: models are often described as highly idealised, and yet they are considered to be vehicles for scientific explanations. Truth-oriented—veritist—conceptions of explanation seem thereby undermined by this contradiction. In this article, I will show h...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inZagadnienia Filozoficzne w Nauce (Online) Vol. 74; no. 74; pp. 225 - 257
Main Author Brandelet, Antoine
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
German
Published Copernicus Center Press 01.01.2023
Subjects
explanations
fiction
idealisations
Philosophy
Philosophy of Science
Special Branches of Philosophy
veritism
models
explanations
veritism
idealisations
fiction
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The epistemology of models has to face a conundrum: models are often described as highly idealised, and yet they are considered to be vehicles for scientific explanations. Truth-oriented—veritist—conceptions of explanation seem thereby undermined by this contradiction. In this article, I will show how this apparent paradox can be avoided by appealing to the notion of fiction. If fictionalism is often thought to lead to various flavours of instrumentalism, thereby weakening the veritist hopes, the fiction view of models offers a framework much richer than it seems at first sight. To do so, I will call upon the concepts of modality, counterfactual structure and credible worlds. In the end, veritism of explanation and fiction can indeed go hand in hand, but the scope of explanations we can hope to draw from models must be more precisely delineated.
ISSN:0867-8286
2451-0602
DOI:10.59203/zfn.74.620