Models and Theories

As scientists spend a substantial part of their time building, testing, comparing and revising theories or models, it is no surprise that the nature of theories and models is a subject of central importance within the philosophy of science. This book provides a critical survey of, and introduction to, the debates surrounding theories and models within analytical philosophy of science. It combines coverage of standard topics such as the syntactic and semantic views of theories as well as ones less often discussed in connection with models and theories but which nevertheless are shown to have a clear bearing on the topic, such as Munich structuralism, thought experiments, the applicability of mathematics in the empirical sciences and measurement theory. The book begins with an exposition of the problems that any tenable account of theories and models has to come to terms with and this serves as the background against which the positions discussed in the book are assessed and evaluated. This book provides a clearly structured and systematic introduction to a field, which, due to its richness and complexity, is difficult to master, and by focusing our attention on central issues and by examining where we stand on these, it also lays bare lacunas in the literature and points to future directions of research.