WiP - Peter Tan (Fordham) / Generality vs. Analogy in Interdisciplinary Model Transfer
WiP - Peter Tan (Fordham) / Generality vs. Analogy in Interdisciplinary Model Transfer
Friday November 10, the Works in Progress meeting, happening this week at an unusual time, welcomes Peter Tan from Fordham University, who will present his work on "Generality vs. Analogy in Interdisciplinary Model Transfer," abstracted below.
Generality vs. Analogy in Interdisciplinary Model Transfer
Philosophers of science interested in the epistemology and methodological foundations of interdisciplinary science have recently become interested in model and template transfer between scientific disciplines, i.e., the application of representational tools from one discipline into another. Existing discussions of interdisciplinary model transfer sometimes treat it as a subclass of analogy or analogical reasoning in science. This talk observes that there may be an epistemically significant difference between applications of model templates: those that are analogical and those that appeal to generality. After introducing some examples where such a difference might be observed, the talk then articulates why the distinction matters for the epistemology of model transfer, including its justification and its possible explanatory or noetic benefits