[Sci-tech-public] Reading Group: Models and Metaphors in Scientific Practice

[Will Thomas]

Apologies to all for the ol' reply-to-all faux pas!  It was unintentional 
I assure you,

Will

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007, Will Thomas wrote:

> Hi Lukas,
> I will likely not be around next year, but I insist that you read Hunter 
> Crowther-Heyck's biography of Herbert Simon.  It is an essential new work on 
> models in policy and cognitive science,
> Best,
> Will
>
> On Sun, 18 Mar 2007, Lukas Rieppel wrote:
>
>> Hi Everyone,
>> 
>> Along with Arnon Levy (a philosophy grad student), I?m planning a
>> reading group on the use of models and metaphors in scientific practice
>> next year. We are hoping to have the Mind Brain Behavior Initiative
>> sponsor this group. For our proposal, we are supposed to come up with a
>> list of people who might be interested in attending some of our
>> discussions. So, if you are at all interested / curious about the
>> relationship between fictional models and the world, the role of
>> metaphor in science, the representational capacity of pictures and 3-D
>> objects, etc. then please look over the proposal draft below and let us
>> know if you *might* be interested in attending a few of these
>> discussions. The more, the merrier.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Lukas
>> 
>> --
>> Lukas Rieppel
>> PhD Student
>> Dpt. of the History of Science
>> Harvard University
>> 
>> 
>> *Models and Metaphors in Scientific Practice*
>> 
>> Philosophers and historians of science have been paying increased
>> attention to models and metaphors over the past few decades. From their
>> complimentary perspectives, these disciplines ask questions about the
>> epistemic and cognitive role of models and metaphors in the process of
>> generating, sharing, and modifying scientific knowledge. Our goal is to
>> form a reading group that will bring these different perspectives into
>> dialogue. Models and metaphors differ from theories by employing
>> non-literal, indeed at times patently false, devices of representation
>> in the search for knowledge. To understand how such devices work we
>> must, on the one hand, have a better grasp of notions such as
>> literality, figurative representation and truth. On the other hand, we
>> need a better understanding of the character of reasoning with
>> non-literal descriptions, and its relation to other forms of cognition.
>> But this work cannot be done in the abstract. We ought to investigate
>> models and metaphors as they are employed in concrete social and
>> epistemic situations. Thus, we believe that interesting work on this
>> cluster of topics should aim to clarify the role of model- and metaphor-
>> based reasoning in context, by drawing on conceptual tools and results
>> from philosophy and the history of science.
>> 
>> Topic I: Models as Cognitive Instruments.
>> 
>> Giere, Ronald N. 1999. ?The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Theories,?
>> in Science without Laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
>> 
>> ------. 1999. ?Visual Models and Scientific Judgment,? in Science
>> without Laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
>> 
>> Topic II: Model-Based Thinking in Natural Science.
>> 
>> Nersessian, N. 1999. ?Model-Based Reasoning in Conceptual Change,? in
>> Model-Based Reasoning in Scientific Discovery by L. Magani, N.
>> Nersessian, and P. Thagard (eds.). New York: Kluwer, pp. 5-22.
>> 
>> Morgan, Mary S. 1999. ?Learning from Models,? in Models as Mediators by
>> M.S. Morgan and M. Morrison (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
>> 
>> Topic III: Models vs. Metaphors
>> 
>> Black, Max. 1962. Essays on ?Metaphor? and ?Model? in Models and
>> Metaphor: Studies in Language and Philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell UP.
>> 
>> Kuhn, Thomas S. 1979, Metaphor in Science, in Ortnoy A. (ed.), Metaphor
>> and Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
>> 
>> Lakof, G. and Johnson M., 1980, Metaphors We Live By (selections),
>> Chicago: Chicago UP.
>> 
>> Topic IV: Models and Paper Tools in the History of Science.
>> 
>> Kohler, Robert E. 1994. Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life.
>> Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
>> 
>> Klein, Ursula. 2003. Experiments, Models, Paper Tools: Cultures of
>> Organic Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century. Stanford: Stanford UP.
>> 
>> Topic V: Models and Make-Believe
>> 
>> Galison, Peter. 1997. ?Computer Simulations and the Trading Zone,? in
>> Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. Chicago: University
>> of Chicago Press. Selections.
>> 
>> Walton, K. 1993. Metaphor and Prop-Oriented Make-Believe, The European
>> Journal of Philosophy, 1: 39?57
>> 
>> Topic VI: Models and the Problem of Truth
>> 
>> Wimsatt, William. 1987. ?How False Models Lead to Truer Theories? in
>> Nitecki, M. Neutral Models in Biology. Oxford: Oxford UP.
>> 
>> Cartwright, Nancy. 1983. How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Oxford UP.
>> Selected Chapters.
>> 
>> Topic VII: Models in the 3rd Dimension
>> 
>> De Chadavarian, S. and Hopwood, N. (eds.) 2004. Models: The Third
>> Dimension of Science. Stanford: Stanford UP.
>> 
>> Griesemer, J. 1990. ?Material Models in Biology.? PSA 1990, Vol. 2:
>> 79-93. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association.
>> 
>> Topic IIX: The Information Gene
>> 
>> Kay, Lily E. 2000. Who Wrote the Book of Life: A History of the Genetic
>> Code. Stanford: Stanford UP.
>> 
>> Peter Beurton, Raphael Falk, and Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (eds.). 2000. The
>> Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution. Historical and
>> Epistemological Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
>> 
>> Sarkar, S. 1996. Biological information: a skeptical look at some
>> central dogmas of molecular biology, in S. Sarkar (ed.) The Philosophy
>> and History of Molecular Biology: New Perspectives. Dordrecht: Kluwer
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