Models and Reality

Abstract

The philosopher Hilary Putnam uses model theory to cast doubt on our ability to engage semantically with an objective world. The role of mathematics for him is to prove this pessimistic conclusion. The present chapter, on the other hand, explores how models can help us to engage semantically with the objective world. Mathematics functions here as an analogy. Among their many other accomplishments, numbers boost the language’s expressive power; they give us access to recondite physical facts. Models, among their many other accomplishments, do the same thing. This is the analogy this chapter attempts to develop.