Deadline for submissions: October 31, 2015
This issue of The Monist addresses the relations between the debate on scientific models in philosophy of science and the debate on the nature of fiction in aesthetics. Although a precursor of the analogy between models and fiction can be identified in Vaihinger’s emphasis on the importance of fictions for scientific reasoning, only very recently have philosophers of science such as Roman Frigg and Peter Godfrey-Smith tried to articulate this analogy by drawing on accounts of fiction from aesthetics. Contributions are invited addressing questions such as: How should we construe theanalogy between models and fiction? Is there an analogue in our engagement with scientific models of the sort of imagination traditionally associated with our engagement with fiction? Is there an analogy between the ways we learn from fictions and the ways we learn through use of scientific models? On what basis are claims about a model qualified as true or false? Is there an analogy between truth in a model and truth in fiction?
Intending authors should directly contact the Advisory Editor, Fiora Salis (F.Salis@lse.ac.uk) or (fiorasalis@campus.ul.pt).