Models as Mediators: Perspectives on Natural and Social Science (Ideas in Context, Series Number 52)

Ideas in Context

by Mary Susanna Morgan (Editor)

Models as Mediators discusses the ways in which models function in modern science, particularly in the fields of physics and economics. Models play a variety of roles in the they are used in the development, exploration and application of theories and in measurement methods. They also provide a mechanism for using scientific concepts and principles to intervene in the world. The editors provide a framework that covers the construction and function of scientific models, and explore the ways in which they enable us to learn about both theories and the world. The contributors to the volume offer their own individual theoretical perspectives and cover a wide range of examples of modeling. These papers provide ideal case study material for exploring both the concepts and typical elements of modeling methods, using analytical approaches from the domains of philosophy and history of science.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

420 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 1999

About the author

Mary Susanna Morgan FBA FRDAAS, is Professor of the History of Economics in the London School of Economics since 1999.

She graduated from the London School of Economics a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Economics in 1978 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 1984. From 1992 to 2002, she worked part-time as Professor of the History and Methodology of Economics in the University of Amsterdam.

Morgan has made important contributions to the history of economic thought, especially with regard to the history of econometrics, the historical development of measurement in economics, and the evolution and methodological implications of the use of economic models.[citation needed]

Since 2002, she has been a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

--From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Cold · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two essays are great and there's some interesting ideas about the philosophy of science. The overly detailed accounts of scientific models are dull.