Leveraging Distortions: Explanation, Idealization, and Universality in Science

An examination of how scientists deliberately and justifiably use pervasive distortions of relevant features to explain and understand natural phenomena.

A fundamental rule of logic is that in order for an argument to provide good reasons for its conclusion, the premises of the argument must be true. In this book, Collin Rice shows how the practice of science repeatedly, pervasively, and deliberately violates this principle. Rice argues that scientists strategically use distortions that misr...