Models and Analogies

Abstract

Questions about the structure and justification of theories, the interpretation of data, and the problem of realism have been in the forefront of debate in recent philosophy of science, and the topic of models and analogies is increasingly recognized as integral to this debate. Models of physical matter and motion - for example, models of atoms and planetary systems - were already familiar in Greek science, but serious analysis of “model” as a concept entered philosophy of science only in the nineteenth century. This was largely the result of proliferation in classical physics of theoretical entities such as “atom,” “electro-magnetic wave,” and “electron,” for which there appeared to be no directly observable evidence.