Fiction and Representation

Fiction and Scientific Representation

Scientific discourse is rife with passages that appear to be ordinary descriptions of systems of interest in a particular discipline. Equally, the pages of textbooks and journals are filled with discussions of the properties and the behavior of those systems. Students of mechanics investigate at length the dynamical properties of a system consisting of two or three spinning spheres with homogen...

Conceptual runoff models - fiction or representation of reality ?

Seibert, J., 1999. Conceptual runoff models fiction or representation of reality? Acta Univ. Ups., Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 436. 52 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-4402-4. Available observations are often not sufficient as a basis for decision making in water management. Conceptual runoff models are frequently used as tools for a wide ...

Fiction indexing and the development of fiction thesauri

Models and Fiction (V6)

Most scientific models are not physical objects, and this raises important questions. What sort of entity are models, what is truth in a model, and how do we learn about models? In this paper I argue that models share important aspects in common with literary fiction, and that therefore theories of fiction can be brought to bear on these questions. In particular, I argue that the pretence theor...

Asbestos: facts and fiction.

Asbestos: Facts and Fiction I appreciate the opportunity to address the omissions, inaccuracies, and innuendos in the position paper by David P. Rall, "Media and Science: Harmless Dioxin, Benign CFCs, and Good Asbestos" (EHP 102:10). Unfortunately, Rail not only misinterprets the conclusions of our 1990 Science article by Mossman et al. (1) but he fails to mention the database, scientific panel...