Exploratory Uses of Scientific Models

Abstract

This chapter discusses a variety of closely related uses of models which are best described collectively as ‘exploratory modeling’. The importance of exploration to science has recently been emphasized by a number of historians and philosophers of science writing on scientific experimentation, and the chapter begins by reviewing this lively debate. Following a clarification of the meaning of ‘exploration’ by distinguishing between a ‘convergent’ and a ‘divergent’ sense, the concept is then applied to the case of scientific models. In particular, four different functions of exploratory models are distinguished: they may function as a starting point for future inquiry, feature in proof-of-principle demonstrations, generate potential explanations of observed (types of) phenomena, and may lead to reassessments of the suitability of the target. These functions are neither mutually exclusive, nor are they thought to exhaust the spectrum of possible exploratory uses to which models may be put. Examples for each of the four types of exploratory uses are provided and range from models in sociodynamics (traffic flow models) to proposed mechanisms of molecular rearrangements in physical organic chemistry. The chapter closes with a discussion of the prospects and limitations of exploratory modeling and concludes that exploration deserves a place alongside explanation and prediction as one of the core functions of scientific modeling.