摘要
模型在科学研究中有着广泛而重要的应用,科学家往往通过直接研究模型而间接地研究世界。那么,科学模型与现实世界之间应当具有什么关系?传统的观点可统称为模型的"拟真观",这类观点认为科学模型与现实对象之间应当具有同构或相似关系,科学模型至少是对真实世界的近似化或理想化的反映;而一种新兴的观点则主张模型既不必同构或相似于待研究的对象,也不必在真实世界中有其对应物,科学模型本质上是虚构的,此即"虚构观"。"虚构观"将科学模型类比于文学作品,强调科学模型之违背现实或依赖于想象,以期对模型的建构和使用过程提供新的洞察,但在对"虚构"概念的理解上却存在偏颇。
Being widely used, models play a significant role in scientific research. Scientists often indirectly investigate the world through directly investigating models. What is the relationship between scientific models and the real world？ The traditional view can be labelled with the phrase＂capturing truth＂, which holds that a scientific model is isomorphic or similar to its target object and that the model reflects the real world at least in a sense of approximation or idealization. However, a new perspective indicates that it is not necessary for a model to be isomorphic or similar to its target object, nor for there to be a counterpart of the model in the real world. Instead scientific models are essentially fictions. Such a kind of view is named ＂fictionalism＂. By comparing scientific models with literature works, fictionalists either emphasize that scientific models deviate the reality or argue that their existence depends on imagination. Though fictionalists try to offer a new insight into the process of modeling, there are some problems in their comprehension on the concept of ＂fiction＂.
出处
《自然辩证法研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2014年第4期3-9,共7页
Studies in Dialectics of Nature
基金
教育部哲学社会科学研究重大课题攻关项目"认知哲学研究"(项目批准号:13JZD004)
关键词
科学模型
真实世界
失实
想象
虚构
scientific models
the real world
out of truth
imagination
fiction
