The scientific imagination philosophical and psychological perspectives / edited by Arnon Levy and Peter Godfrey-Smith.

Other author Levy, Arnon (Philosopher)
Other author Godfrey-Smith, Peter.
Other author Oxford University Press.
Format Electronic
Publication InfoNew York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]
Descriptionxi, 344 pages ; 24 cm
Supplemental ContentFull text available from Oxford Scholarship Online
Subjects

Contents Capturing the scientific imagination / Fiora Salis and Roman Frigg -- If models were fictions, then what would they be? / Amie L. Thomasson -- Realism about missing systems / Martin Thomson-Jones -- The fictional character of scientific models / Stacie Friend -- Models and reality / Stephen Yablo -- Models, fictions, and conditionals / Peter Godfrey-Smith -- Imagining mechanisms with diagrams / Benjamin Sheredos and William Bechtel -- Abstraction and representational capacity in computational structures / Michael Weisberg -- "Learning by thinking" in science and in everyday life / Tania Lombrozo -- Is imagination constrained enough for science? / Deena Skolnick Weisberg -- Can children benefit from thought experiments? / Igor Bascandziev and Paul M. Harris -- Metaphor and scientific explanation / Arnon Levy -- Imaginative frames for scientific inquiry : metaphors, telling facts, and just-so stories / Elizabeth Camp.
Abstract "Science is both a creative endeavor and a highly regimented one. It involves surprising, sometimes unthinkably novel ideas, along with meticulous exploration and the careful exclusion of alternatives. At the heart of this productive tension stands a human capacity typically called 'the imagination': our ability, indeed our inclination, to think up new ideas, situations, and scenarios and to explore their contents and consequences in the mind's eye. This volume explores our capacity to imagine and its implications for the philosophy and practice of science. One central aim is to integrate philosophical and psychological philosophical viewpoints and to assess central questions both empirically and theoretically. Such questions include the roles of models, metaphors, and thought experiments; the correct way to understand scientific fictions; the development of imaginative capacities; and the connection between the imagination and scientific practices such as abstraction, idealization, and counterfactual reasoning"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Access restrictionAvailable only to authorized users.
Technical detailsMode of access: World Wide Web
Genre/formElectronic books.
LCCN 2019033333
ISBN9780190212308 (hardback)
ISBN(epub)

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