Same and Different: How Models Contribute to Knowing. A review of Modelwork

Abstract

ABSTRACT Modelwork, a collection of articles edited by Martin Brückner, Sandy Isenstadt, and Sarah Wasserman (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), contributes to scholarship about human inquiry by exploring the nature and action of models. Models provide access to hidden realities by bridging the gap between the tangible and the abstract; models also alter perceptions and can have deep and lasting effects on human knowing. The collection argues for the importance of attending to this double action of modelling, and explores important epistemological questions.