Reference models : using models to turn data into evidence

• Main Author: Miyake, Teru
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Idealization; Evidence; Methodology; Models; Newton; Geophysics; Earth Science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/81775; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/39679; http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11105
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Reference models of the earth’s interior play an important role in the acquisition of knowledge about the earth’s interior and the earth as a whole. Such models are used as a sort of standard reference against which data are compared. I argue that the use of reference models merits more attention than it has gotten so far in the literature on models, for it is an example of a method of doing science that has a long and significant history, and a study of reference models could increase our understanding of this methodology.