The first comprehensive defense of an inferential conception of scientific representation with applications to art and epistemology.
Mauricio Suárez develops a conception of representation that delivers a compelling account of modeling practice. He begins by discussing the history and methodology of model building, charting the emergence of what he calls the modeling attitude, a nineteenth-century and fin de siècle development. Prominent cases of models, both historical and contemporary, are used as benchmarks for the accounts of representation considered throughout the book. After arguing against reductive naturalist theories of scientific representation, Suárez sets out his own account: a case for pluralism regarding the means of representation and minimalism regarding its constituents. He shows that scientists employ a variety of modeling relations in their representational practice—which helps them to assess the accuracy of their representations—while demonstrating that there is nothing metaphysically deep about the constituent relation that encompasses all these diverse means.
The book also probes the broad implications of Suárez’s inferential conception outside scientific modeling itself, covering analogies with debates about artistic representation and philosophical thought over the past several decades.
Speakers: Mauricio Suárez (Mauricio Suárez, Philosophy School, Complutense University of Madrid); Steven Shapin (Emeritus Professor of History of Science, Harvard University); Jimena Canales (Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement, Darmouth College); and Catherine Elgin (Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University)
Sponsors: RCCHU; Harvard University; Darmouth College; Complutense University of Madrid
LOCATION:RCCHU Conference Room STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20250613T210000Z DTEND:20250613T220000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR