Table of Contents

Preface

Part One: Mathematics, Explanation and Understanding
Chapter One: Abstraction and Idealisation: Understanding via Models
Chapter Two: From the Pure to the Concrete: How Mathematics Yields Physical Information

Part Two: Where Models Meet the World: Problems and Perspectives
Chapter Three: More than Make-Believe: Fictions, Models and Reality
Chapter Four: Mediated Knowledge: Representation and The Theory-Model Axis
Chapter Five: Making the Best of It: Inconsistent vs. Complementary Models

Part Three: Computer Simulation: The New Reality
Chapter Six: Why Materiality is Not Enough: Models, Measurement and Computer Simulation
Chapter Seven: Legitimating Simulation: Methodological Issues of Verification and Validation.
Chapter Eight: Without it there's Nothing: The Necessity of Simulation in the Higgs Search

Index

About the Author

Margaret Morrison is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Her publications span many fields including general philosophy of science, history and philosophy of physics, and the history of early modern philosophy (especially Kant). She has also published articles on methodological issues related to the development of population genetics.

Reviews

"each chapter can stand alone, contributing an argument or position to a specific question related to modeling, and offering insight into specific instances of modeling through the case studies ... The examples in the book can provide meaningful considerations then for those looking to understand modeling in context, which may be the best way to understand how contemporary science is engaged in the practice of reconstructing reality." -- Melissa Jacquart,
Science and Education
"Her limpid exposition and copious use of example in the interpretation of the function of models in different investigative contexts is an essential contribution to the current debate about the role of reconstructive methods in the practice of science... Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners." --Choice
"...Morrison's look at concrete and intricate cases of modeling raises a number of interesting issues, and at places, her piecemeal approach is as refreshing as her claims are thought-provoking. The book thus is a valuable reading for philosophers who work on modeling in physics." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online
"In sum, Morrison's new book is a rich and provocative contribution to several core debates in current philosophy of science such as explanations and understanding, idealizations, models, and computer simulations. Even if one is not convinced by all of the points that Morrison makes in (what we call) a 'particularist' and 'therapeutic' style, one thing is for sure: if one wants to defend a 'general philosophical account' of some of the discussed topics, then
one has to respond to the criticisms forcefully presented in Reconstructing Reality." --British Journal for the Philosophy of Science