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On the Use of Visualizations in the Practice of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Pauline Sargent
Pauline Sargent*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Abstract

Visualizations used in the practice of neuroscience, as one example of a scientific practice, can be sorted according to whether they represent (A) actual things, (B) theoretical models, or (C) some integration of these two. In this paper I hypothesize that an assessment of a chain of visual representations from (A) through (C) to (B) (and back again) is used, as part of the practice of scientific judgment, to assess the adequacy of the “working fit” between the theoretical model and the actual thing or process that the model is intended to explain.

Type
Philosophical Issues in Cognitive Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1996. , 1996 , pp. S230 - S238
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

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Footnotes

†

I want to thank Ronald N. Giere for his inspiration and helpful suggestions.

‡

Philosophy Department, University of Minnesota, 355 Ford Hall, 224 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

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