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Multiple-Models Juxtaposition and Trade-Offs among Modeling Desiderata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Yoshinari Yoshida
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Abstract

This article offers a characterization of what I call multiple-models juxtaposition (MMJ), a strategy for managing trade-offs among modeling desiderata. MMJ displays models of distinct phenomena together and fulfills different desiderata both in the individual models and by a comparison of those models. I discuss a concrete case from developmental biology, where MMJ coordinates generality and detail. I also clarify the distinction between MMJ and multiple-models idealization (MMI), which also uses multiple models to manage trade-offs among desiderata. MMJ and MMI differ in several points, such as the ways they manage trade-offs and the purposes of using multiple models.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 88 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 103 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I am grateful to Alan Love, Max Dresow, Katherine Liu, Michael Travisano, Samuel Fletcher, Michael Bennett McNulty, Christopher Nagel, Kelle Dhein, Aaron Vesey, and Nathan Lackey for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. Financial support for the research and writing of this article came from a Baruch Spinoza travel award, the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Conversation with William Bausman helped me revise the article. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions.

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