Stuart Glennan
sglennan index Associate Professor of Philosophy, Butler University Chair, Department of Philosophy and Religion Visit the Department Web Site Although many philosophers of science have recognized the importance of modeling in contemporary science, relatively little work has been done in developing a general account of models. The most widely accepted account, put forth by advocates of the semantic conception of theories, misleadingly identifies scientific models with the models of mathematical logic. I present an alternative theory of scientific models in which models are defined by their representational relation to a physical system. I explore in some detail a particular sort of model called a ‘mechanical model’ I illustrate the applicability of my approach by applying it to a problem in contemporary speech perception research. The model of models is used to analyze how competing models of the mechanisms of vowel normalization are constructed, tested, and revised.
Stuart Glennan
Works unpublished or under review
A Model of Models