On the significance of idealizations in sciene

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2005

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Eyim, Ahmet

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The aim of this thesis is to investigate the problems that use of idealizations in science leads to. Idealizations are simplifications and therefore false descriptions of how actual objects behave. Presence of idealizations in scientific theories is the reason for the problems in our understanding of confirmation of theories and also of scientific explanations. Nevertheless, idealizations are ubiquitous especially in natural sciences. Scientists have to employ idealizations because of the complexity of the real world and our limited capacity of computation. The roots of the methodology of modern science are in Cartesian philosophy. I propose that Descartes also employed idealizations in his theory of motion in the universe. Idealized worlds can be regarded as simplifications of the real world. Scientific theories are literally false but they are true in the possible worlds which are similar to the real world. Models provide the connections between idealized laws and the real world. Construction of models of the actual world is based upon idealizations which are indispensable in the theoretical sciences. Theories can be indirectly confirmed by models denoting different aspects of the phenomena.

Subject Keywords

Knowledge, Theory of

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http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12605777/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/15016

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

A. Eyim, “On the significance of idealizations in sciene,” M.A. - Master of Arts, Middle East Technical University, 2005.