Scientific pictures, models, and their justification
Philosophy of Science Colloquium
The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows.
Date: 07/11/2024
Time: 16h45
Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 2G
Abstract:
In this paper, I first show that similarity accounts of scientific pictures fail with more realistic cases of scientific pictures. My primary case study is the picture of a black hole, from which I develop an interpretation-based account of picture representation analogous to how models represent: a picture represents a designated target system iff, once interpreted, it exemplifies properties that are then imputed to the target via a de-idealising function. Then, I show that justification of the inferences from pictures crucially depends on their causal mechanisms of production, in contrast with the standard justificatory strategies we employ for model inferences.