How Theories Represent

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62 (4):857-894 (2011)
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Abstract

An account of scientific representation in terms of partial structures and partial morphisms is further developed. It is argued that the account addresses a variety of difficulties and challenges that have recently been raised against such formal accounts of representation. This allows some useful parallels between representation in science and art to be drawn, particularly with regard to apparently inconsistent representations. These parallels suggest that a unitary account of scientific and artistic representation is possible, and our article can be viewed as laying the groundwork for such an account—although, as we shall acknowledge, significant differences exist between these two forms of representation.

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Author Profiles

Steven French
University of Leeds
Otávio Bueno
University of Miami

Citations of this work

Scientific representation.Roman Frigg & James Nguyen - 2016 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Mathematical Explanation: A Pythagorean Proposal.Sam Baron - 2024 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 75 (3):663-685.
Epistemic artifacts and the modal dimension of modeling.Tarja Knuuttila - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (3):1-18.

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References found in this work

Models and representation.Richard Hughes - 1997 - Philosophy of Science 64 (4):336.
Scientific representation: Against similarity and isomorphism.Mauricio Suárez - 2003 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 17 (3):225-244.
Meaning and Mental Representation.Robert Cummins - 1989 - Mind 99 (396):637-642.

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