Abstract
In this paper, some issues related to idealization in science are discussed in the light of García de la Sienra’s approach to the topic in his new book, A Structuralist Theory of Economics (Routledge, London, 2019). The paper focuses on topics related to the notions of abstraction, idealization/concretization, and scientific models. After discussing the fictionalist proposal of Frigg and other authors, according to which models are fictions, I present and argue in favor of an alternative, the artefactualist one, according to which models are better understood as abstract artifacts, which are the product of a process of abstraction and idealization. In their turn, abstraction and idealization are understood in terms of a network of conditionalizations and counterfactual deformations of various degrees.
STOA is a biannual publication edited by the Institute of Philosophy of the Universidad Veracruzana, Tuxpan, No. 29, Frac. Veracruz, C.P. 91020, Xalapa, Ver., Tel. 8154285, http://www.uv.mx/filosofia. Responsible editor: Jesús Turiso Sebastián. Exclusive Use Rights Reservation No. 04-2008-121012511200-203, granted by the Copyright Reservation Directorate of the National Institute of Copyright of the Secretariat of Public Education, ISSN: 2007-1868. Responsible for the last modification of this issue: Jesús Turiso Sebastián, Tuxpan, No. 29, Frac. Veracruz, C.P. 91020, date of last modification August 5, 2011. Distribution and digital support by the Academic Software Development Department of the Universidad Veracruzana.
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