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

[Will Thomas]

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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