Papers by Tarja Knuuttila
Synthese, 2023
The omnipresence of the same basic equations, function forms, algorithms, and quantitative method... more The omnipresence of the same basic equations, function forms, algorithms, and quantitative methods is one of the most spectacular characteristics of contemporary modeling practice. Recently, the emergence of the discussion of templates and template transfer has addressed this striking cross-disciplinary reach of certain mathematical forms and computational algorithms. In this paper, we develop a notion of a model template, consisting of its mathematical structure, ontology, prototypical properties and behaviors, focal conceptualizations, and the paradigmatic questions it addresses. We apply this notion to three widely disseminated and powerful model templates: the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model of spin glasses, scale-free networks, and the Kuramoto model of synchronization. We argue that what appears to be an interdisciplinary model transfer between different domains turns out, from a broader perspective, to be the application of transdisciplinary model templates across a multitude of domains. We also point out a further feature of template-based modeling that so far has not been discussed: template entanglement. Such entanglement enhances and makes manifest the conceptual side of model templates.
Education Sciences
Models are at the core of scientific reasoning and science education. They are especially crucial... more Models are at the core of scientific reasoning and science education. They are especially crucial in scientific and educational contexts where the primary objects of study are unobservables. While empirical science education researchers apply philosophical arguments in their discussions of models and modeling, we in turn look at exemplary empirical studies through the lense of philosophy of science. The studied cases tend to identify modeling with representation, while simultaneously approaching models as tools. We argue that such a dual approach is inconsistent, and suggest considering models as epistemic artifacts instead. The artifactual approach offers many epistemic benefits. The access to unobservable target systems becomes less mysterious when models are not approached as more or less accurate representations, but rather as tools constructed to answer theoretical and empirical questions. Such a question-oriented approach contributes to a more consistent theoretical understand...
One striking feature of the contemporary modeling practice is its interdisciplinarity: the same f... more One striking feature of the contemporary modeling practice is its interdisciplinarity: the same function forms and equations, and mathematical and computational methods are being transferred across disciplinary boundaries. Within philosophy of science this interdisciplinary dimension of modeling has been addressed by both analogy and template-based approaches that have proceeded separately from each other. We argue that a more fully-blown account of model transfer needs both perspectives. We examine analogical reasoning and template application through a detailed case study on the transfer of the Ising model from physics into neuroscience. Our account combines the analogy and template-based approaches through the notion of a model template that highlights the conceptual side of model transfer.
Philosophical Perspectives on the Engineering Approach in Biology, 2020
This study seeks to situate the philosophical discussion on models and scientific representation ... more This study seeks to situate the philosophical discussion on models and scientific representation within the larger context of questioning representation that is taking place in other fields, especially in science and technology studies. It addresses four related questions: (i) What kinds of different reactions there have been to the puzzle of representation? (ii) From where do the seeming epistemological difficulties concerning representation stem? (iii) How can representation be approached in a non-representationalist way? (iv) What kinds of things are models, and how do they give us knowledge? A new artefactual approach to models is advanced that loosens the epistemic value of models from representation and ascribes it instead to their materially embodied constraints and interactive enablings. The thesis draws four additional major conclusions: (1) Our understanding of modelling should not be reduced to models representing some external target systems. Apart from being representat...
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 2022
Idealization is commonly understood as distortion: representing things differently than how they ... more Idealization is commonly understood as distortion: representing things differently than how they actually are. In this paper, we outline an alternative artifactual approach that does not make misrepresentation central for the analysis of idealization. We examine the contrast between the Hodgkin-Huxley (1952a, b, c) and the Heimburg-Jackson (2005, 2006) models of the nerve impulse from the artifactual perspective, and argue that, since the two models draw upon different epistemic resources and research programs, it is often difficult to tell which features of a system the central assumptions involved are supposed to distort. Many idealizations are holistic in nature. They cannot be locally undone without dismantling the model, as they occupy a central position in the entire research program. Nor is their holistic character mainly related to the use of mathematical and statistical modeling techniques as portrayed by Rice (2018, 2019). We suggest that holistic idealizations are implicit theoretical and representational assumptions that can only be understood in relation to the conceptual and representational tools exploited in modeling and experimental practices. Such holistic idealizations play a pivotal role not just in individual models, but also in defining research programs.
Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science, 2021
European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 2021
The epistemic value of models has traditionally been approached from a representational perspecti... more The epistemic value of models has traditionally been approached from a representational perspective. This paper argues that the artifactual approach evades the problem of accounting for representation and better accommodates the modal dimension of modeling. From an artifactual perspective, models are viewed as erotetic vehicles constrained by their construction and available representational tools. The modal dimension of modeling is approached through two case studies. The first portrays mathematical modeling in economics, while the other discusses the modeling practice of synthetic biology, which exploits and combines models in various modes and media. Neither model intends to represent any actual target system. Rather, they are constructed to study possible mechanisms through the construction of a model system with built-in dependencies.
Perspectives on Science, 2021
This paper examines two parallel discussions of scientific modeling which have invoked experiment... more This paper examines two parallel discussions of scientific modeling which have invoked experimentation in addressing the role of models in scientific inquiry. One side discusses the experimental character of models, whereas the other focuses on their exploratory uses. Although both relate modeling to experimentation, they do so differently. The former has considered the similarities and differences between models and experiments, addressing, in particular, the epistemic value of materiality. By contrast, the focus on exploratory modeling has highlighted the various kinds of exploratory functions of models in the early stages of inquiry. These two perspectives on modeling are discussed through a case study in the field of synthetic biology. The research practice in question explores biological control by making use of an ensemble of different epistemic means: mathematical models and simulations, synthetic genetic circuits and intracellular measuring devices, and finally electronic ci...
Biology & Philosophy, 2017
The attempt to define life has gained new momentum in the wake of novel fields such as synthetic ... more The attempt to define life has gained new momentum in the wake of novel fields such as synthetic biology, astrobiology, and artificial life. In a series of articles, Cleland, Chyba, and Machery claim that definitions of life seek to provide necessary and sufficient conditions for applying the concept of life-something that such definitions cannot, and should not do. We argue that this criticism is largely unwarranted. Cleland, Chyba, and Machery approach definitions of life as classifying devices, thereby neglecting their other epistemic roles. We identify within the discussions of the nature and origen of life three other types of definitions: theoretical, transdisciplinary, and diagnostic definitions. The primary aim of these definitions is not to distinguish life from nonlife, although they can also be used for classificatory purposes. We focus on the definitions of life within the budding field of astrobiology, paying particular attention to transdisciplinary definitions, and diagnostic definitions in the search for biosignatures from other planets.
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 2018
Although the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary biological sciences has been addressed by p... more Although the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary biological sciences has been addressed by philosophers, historians, and sociologists of science, the different ways in which engineering concepts and methods have been applied in biology have been somewhat neglected. We examine e using the mechanistic philosophy of science as an analytic springboard e the transfer of network methods from engineering to biology through the cases of two biology laboratories operating at the California Institute of Technology. The two laboratories study gene regulatory networks, but in remarkably different ways. The research strategy of the Davidson lab fits squarely into the traditional mechanist philosophy in its aim to decompose and reconstruct, in detail, gene regulatory networks of a chosen model organism. In contrast, the Elowitz lab constructs minimal models that do not attempt to represent any particular naturally evolved genetic circuits. Instead, it studies the principles of gene regulation through a templatebased approach that is applicable to any kinds of networks, whether biological or not. We call for the mechanists to consider whether the latter approach can be accommodated by the mechanistic approach, and what kinds of modifications it would imply for the mechanistic paradigm of explanation, if it were to address modelling more generally.
European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 2016
One striking feature of the contemporary modelling practice is its interdisciplinary nature. The ... more One striking feature of the contemporary modelling practice is its interdisciplinary nature. The same equation forms, and mathematical and computational methods, are used across different disciplines, as well as within the same discipline. Are there, then, differences between intra- and interdisciplinary transfer, and can the comparison between the two provide more insight on the challenges of interdisciplinary theoretical work? We will study the development and various uses of the Ising model within physics, contrasting them to its applications to socio-economic systems. While the renormalization group (RG) methods justify the transfer of the Ising model within physics – by ascribing them to the same universality class – its application to socio-economic phenomena has no such theoretical grounding. As a result, the insights gained by modelling socio-economic phenomena by the Ising model may remain limited.
Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 2016
How do philosophers of science make use of historical case studies? Are their accounts of histori... more How do philosophers of science make use of historical case studies? Are their accounts of historical cases purpose-built and lacking in evidential strength as a result of putting forth and discussing philosophical positions? We will study these questions through the examination of three different philosophical case studies. All of them focus on modeling and on Vito Volterra, contrasting his work to that of other theoreticians. We argue that the worries concerning the evidential role of historical case studies in philosophy are partially unfounded, and the evidential and hermeneutical roles of case studies need not be played against each other. In philosophy of science, case studies are often tied to conceptual and theoretical analysis and development, rendering their evidential and theoretic/hermeneutic roles intertwined. Moreover, the problems of resituating or generalizing local knowledge are not specific to philosophy of science but commonplace in many scientific practices—which show similarities to the actual use of historical case studies by philosophers of science.
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 2016
Is there something specific about modelling that distinguishes it from many other theoretical end... more Is there something specific about modelling that distinguishes it from many other theoretical endeavours? We consider Michael Weisberg's ([2007], [2013]) thesis that modelling is a form of indirect representation through a close examination of the historical roots of the Lotka-Volterra model. While Weisberg discusses only Volterra's work, we also study Lotka's very different design of the Lotka-Volterra model. We will argue that while there are elements of indirect representation in both Volterra's and Lotka's modelling approaches, they are largely due to two other features of contemporary model construction processes that Weisberg does not explicitly consider: the methods-drivenness and outcome-orientedness of modelling. 1 Introduction 2 Modelling as Indirect Representation 3 The Design of the Lotka-Volterra Model by Volterra 3.1 Volterra's method of hypothesis 3.2 The construction of the Lotka-Volterra model by Volterra 4 The Design of the Lotka-Volterra Model by Lotka 4.1 Physical biology according to Lotka 4.2 Lotka's systems approach and the Lotka-Volterra model 5 Philosophical Discussion: Strategies and Tools of Modelling 5.1 Volterra's path from the method of isolation to the method of hypothesis 5.2 The template-based approach of Lotka 5.3 Modelling: methods-driven and outcome-oriented 6 Conclusion Brit.
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Papers by Tarja Knuuttila