With case studies that range from physics to economics and to biology, Fictions in Science reveals that fictions are as ubiquitous in scientific narratives and practice as they are in any other human endeavor, including literature and art. Of course scientific activity, most prominently in the formal sciences, employs logically precise algorithmic thinking. However, the key to the predictive and technological success of the empirical sciences might well lie elsewhere—perhaps even in scientists’ extraordinary creative imagination instead. As these essays demonstrate, within the bounds of what is empirically possible, a scientist’s capacity for invention and creative thinking matches that of any writer or artist.
With case studies that range from physics to economics and to biology, Fictions in Science reveals that fictions are as ubiquitous in scientific narratives and practice as they are in any other human endeavor, including literature and art. Of course scientific activity, most prominently in the formal sciences, employs logically precise algorithmic thinking. However, the key to the predictive and technological success of the empirical sciences might well lie elsewhere—perhaps even in scientists’ extraordinary creative imagination instead. As these essays demonstrate, within the bounds of what is empirically possible, a scientist’s capacity for invention and creative thinking matches that of any writer or artist.

Fictions in Science: Philosophical Essays on Modeling and Idealization
290
Fictions in Science: Philosophical Essays on Modeling and Idealization
290Hardcover(New Edition)
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Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780415990356 |
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Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Publication date: | 10/29/2008 |
Series: | Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science |
Edition description: | New Edition |
Pages: | 290 |
Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d) |