RT Book, Section
T1 Informative models: idealization and abstraction
T2 Modelos informativos: idealización y abstracción.
A1 Bolinska, Agnes
A1 Suárez, Mauricio
A2 Cassini, Alejandro
A2 Redmond, Juan
AB Mauricio Suárez and Agnes Bolinska apply the tools of communication theory to scientific modeling in order to characterize the informational content of a scientific model. They argue that when represented as a communication channel, a model source conveys information about its target, and that such representations are therefore appropriate whenever modeling is employed for informational gain. They then extract two consequences. First, the introduction of idealizations is akin in informational terms to the introduction of noise in a signal; for in an idealization we introduce ‘extraneous’ elements into the model that have no correlate in the target. Second, abstraction in a model is informationally equivalent to equivocation in the signal; for in an abstraction we “neglect” in the model certain features that obtain in the target. They conclude that it becomes possible in principle to quantify idealization and abstraction in informative models, although precise absolute quantification will be difficult to achieve in practice.
PB Springer
SN 978-3-030-65801-4
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100121
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100121
LA eng
NO Suárez, Mauricio and Agnes Bolinska. 2021. "Informative Models: Idealization and Abstraction". In Models and Idealizations in Science: Artefactual and Fictional Approaches (Logic, Epistemology and the Unity of Science Series, vol. 50), edited by Alejandro Cassini and Juan Redmond, Springer, Cham.
NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 8 abr 2025