The unfeasibility of onto-representationalism

Much effort has been devoted to explaining in what sense models represent their corresponding target systems. This has been considered a pivotal philosophical problem since representational models have been widely assumed to canalize our knowledge and understanding of reality. The aim of the paper is to analytically structure the framework commonly adopted to address the Scientific Representation Problem (SR-P), i.e., onto-representationalism, and to examine its main problems. Due to its very theoretical conditions, I conclude that onto-representationalism constitutes an inadequate meta-scientific platform to approach SR-P. I locate the problem in the semantic assumption. To materialize these analyses, I examine the main arguments proposed by the main variants of onto-representationalism: classical onto-representationalism and sophisticated onto-representationalism.

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Publication Details

Journal
THEORIA An International Journal for Theory History and Foundations of Science
Published
2024-12-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1387/theoria.26121
Primary Topic
Philosophy, Science, and History
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

The unfeasibility of onto-representationalism

Mariano Martín-Villuendas
THEORIA An International Journal for Theory History and Foundations of Science
Philosophy, Science, and History
article

The unfeasibility of onto-representationalism

Mariano Martín-Villuendas
article en

Abstract

Much effort has been devoted to explaining in what sense models represent their corresponding target systems. This has been considered a pivotal philosophical problem since representational models have been widely assumed to canalize our knowledge and understanding of reality. The aim of the paper is to analytically structure the framework commonly adopted to address the Scientific Representation Problem (SR-P), i.e., onto-representationalism, and to examine its main problems. Due to its very theoretical conditions, I conclude that onto-representationalism constitutes an inadequate meta-scientific platform to approach SR-P. I locate the problem in the semantic assumption. To materialize these analyses, I examine the main arguments proposed by the main variants of onto-representationalism: classical onto-representationalism and sophisticated onto-representationalism.

THEORIA An International Journal for Theory History and Foundations of ScienceVol. 40(1)
Universidad de Salamanca (ES)
Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León, Junta de Castilla y León
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 57%
Philosophy, Science, and History
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