What do Physical Models Tell us?

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the inferences that are drawn from physical models. It is this rather hazy separation between the descriptive and the explanatory aspects of science, between the functions of observational terms and of theoretical terms that has provided the material for much of the recent discussion in the philosophy of science. Three different levels of question can be asked about this, as about any other problem in philosophy of science. It is important to separate these levels, because the techniques used in answering them are significantly different. The aim is to begin from ordinary usage and when stipulation becomes necessary to choose those stipulations that will, so far as is possible, support those conceptual distinctions that are latent in actual scientific practice. A theory is something put forward to account for one or more empirical laws that are already known. It is not just a singular hypothesis but has some degree of generality. But it is something more than a mere higher-order generalization.