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Handshaking Your Way to the Top: Simulation at the Nanoscale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Eric Winsberg
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Abstract

Should philosophers of science be paying attention to developments in “nanoscience”? Undoubtedly, it is too early to tell for sure. The goal of this paper is to take a preliminary look. In particular, I look at the use of computational models in the study of nano-sized solid-state materials. What I find is that there are features of these models that appear on their face to be at odds with some basic philosophical intuitions about the relationships between different theories and between theories and their models. My conclusion is that developments in nanoscience are not an unlikely place for novel insights in the philosophy of science to emerge.

Type
Simulation, Instrumentation, and Representation at the Nanoscale
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 73 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. Edited by Miriam Solomon , December 2006 , pp. 582 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I thank the many attendees at PSA 2004 and at a presentation at the University of Bielefeld for helpful comments.

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