Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-14T21:08:25.523Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Saving the Phenomena” Today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Paul Teller
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bogen and Woodward argued the indirect connection between data and theory in terms of their conception of “phenomena.” I outline and elaborate on their presentation. To illuminate the connection with contemporary thinking in terms of models, I distinguish between phenomena tokens, representations of which can be identified with data models, and phenomena types that can be identified with relatively low-lying models or aspects of models in the model hierarchy. Throughout I stress the role of idealization in these considerations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 77 , Issue 5 , December 2010 , pp. 815 - 826
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bogen, James, and Woodward, James. 1988. “Saving the Phenomena.” Philosophical Review 97:303–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brading, Katherine. 2010. “Autonomous Patterns and Scientific Realism.”Philosophy of Science, in this issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duhem, Pierre. 1969. To Save the Phenomena. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald. 2010. “An Agent-Based Conception of Models and Scientific Representation.” Synthese 172 (2): 269–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooday, Graeme. 1995. “The Morals of Energy Metering.” In The Values of Precision, ed. Wise, Norton. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, Todd. 2003. “Data Models and Acquisition and Manipulation of Data.” Philosophy of Science 70:1508–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAllister, James. 2007. “Model Selection and the Multiplicity of Patterns in Empirical Data.” Philosophy of Science 74:884–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, Paul. 2004. “The Law Idealization.” Philosophy of Science 71:730–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, Paul. 2008. “Representation in Science.” In The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Science, ed. Psillos, Stathis and Curd, Martin, 435–41. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Woodward, James. 2003. Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, James. 2007. “Causation with a Human Face.” In Causation, Physics and the Constitution of Reality, ed. Price, Huw and Corry, Richard. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar