The Nature of Scientific Models: Abstract Artifacts That Determine Fictional Systems

Abstract

Cartwright (How the laws of physics lie. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1983) said_ “A model is a work of fiction”. Since then a good deal of philosophical literature has advocated that scientific models are fictional objects. In this contribution we will try to show that Cartwright’s dictum is correct, but that scientific models are not fictional objects. We distinguish between models as abstract objects and the fictional systems that they determine, where the latter can be in partial correspondence with parcels of the world. We also contrast our view with other recent approaches for scientific models, among them Contessa’s dualist view as well as Frigg’s, Toon’s and Levy’s accounts based on Walton’s Pretence Theory.