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Models and the locus of their truth
Author(s) -
Uskali Mäki
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
synthese
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1573-0964
pISSN - 0039-7857
DOI - 10.1007/s11229-009-9566-0
Subject(s) - philosophy of language , philosophy of science , pragmatic theory of truth , epistemology , metaphysics , truth condition , coherence theory of truth , truth value , logical truth , alethiology , philosophy , pragmatics , computer science , linguistics
If models can be true, where is their truth located? Giere (e.g. 1988) has suggested an account of theoretical models on which models themselves are not truth-valued. The paper suggests modifying Giere's account without going all the way to purely pragmatic conceptions of truth - while giving pragmatics a prominent role in modeling and truth-acquisition. The strategy of the paper is to ask: if I want to relocate truth inside models, how do I get it, what else do I need to accept and reject? In particular, what ideas about model and truth do I need? The case used as an illustration is the world's first economic model, that of J.H. von Thünen (1826/1842) on agricultural land use in the highly idealized Isolated State.

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