Robust! handle with care

Abstract

Michael Weisberg has argued that robustness analysis is useful in evaluating both scientific models and their implications and that robustness analysis comes in three types that share their form and aim. We argue for three cautionary claims regarding Weisberg's reconstruction: (1) robustness analysis may be of limited or no value in evaluating models and their implications; (2) the unificatory reconstruction conceals that the three types of robustness differ in form and role; (3) there is no confluence of types of robustness. We illustrate our central first claim with a case study: the application of Lotka-Volterra models to technology diffusion. © 2012 by the Philosophy of Science Association.