Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-wxk4p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T23:50:26.247Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Deflationary Metaphysics and the Natures of Maps

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Sergio Sismondo  and
Nicholas Chrisman
Sergio Sismondo
Affiliation:
Queen's University
Nicholas Chrisman
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

“Scientific theories are maps of the natural world.” This metaphor is often used as part of a deflationary argument for a weak but relatively global version of scientific realism, a version that recognizes the place of conventions, goals, and contingencies in scientific representations, while maintaining that they are typically true in a clear and literal sense. By examining, in a naturalistic way, some relationships between maps and what they map, we question the scope and value of realist construals of maps—and by extension of scientific representations. Deflationary philosophy of science requires more variegated stances.

Information

Type
Metaphysics and Methodology of Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 68 , Issue S3: No. 3 Supplement: Proceedings of the 2000 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 2001 , 2001 , pp. S38 - S49
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

†

Sismondo: Department of Philosophy, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada K7L 3N6, sismondo@post.queensu.ca; Chrisman: Department of Geography, University of Washington, Box 353550, Seattle, WA 98195–3550, chrisman@u.washington.edu.

‡

Sismondo acknowledges partial support from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant 410–00–0515. Chrisman acknowledges partial support from National Science Foundation grant SBR 98–100075.

References

Azevedo, Jane (1997), Mapping Reality: An Evolutionary Realist Methodology for the Natural and Social Sciences. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Cartwright, Nancy (1983), How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/0198247044.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chrisman, Nicholas (1999a), “A Transformational Approach to GIS Operations”, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 13(7): 617–637.10.1080/136588199241030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chrisman, Nicholas (1999b), “Trading Zones or Boundary Objects: Understanding Incomplete Translations of Technical Expertise”, presented at 4S meeting, San Diego.Google Scholar
Feyerabend, Paul (1975), Against Method. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Fine, Arthur (1986a), The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism and the Quantum Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Fine, Arthur (1986b), “Unnatural Attitudes: Realist and Instrumentalist Attachments to Science”, Mind 95:149–179.10.1093/mind/XCV.378.149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galison, Peter and Stump, David (eds.) (1996), The Disunity of Science: Boundaries. Contexts. and Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Giere, Ronald (1999), Science without Laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gieryn, Thomas (1999), Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Godlewska, Anne and Smith, Neil (1994), Geography and Empire. Institute of British Geographers Special Publication 30. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hacking, Ian (1992), “The Self-Vindication of the Laboratory Sciences”, in Pickering, Andrew (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 29–64.Google Scholar
Hacking, Ian (1996), Rewriting the Soul. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Harley, John B. (1988), “Maps, Knowledge, and Power”, in Cosgrove, Denis and Daniels, Stephen (eds.), Iconographies of Landscape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 277–312.Google Scholar
Hutchins, Edwin (1995), Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Knorr-Cetina, Karin D. (1981), The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science. Oxford: Pergamon Press Ltd.Google Scholar
Lathrop, Coalter (1997), “The Technical Aspects of International Maritime Boundary Delimitation, Depiction, and Recovery”, Ocean Development and International Law 28:167–197.10.1080/00908329709546101CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monmonier, Mark (1996), Drawing the Line: Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy. New York: Henry Holt & Co.Google Scholar
Peucker, Thomas K. and Chrisman, Nicholas (1975), “Cartographic Data Structures”, The American Cartographer, 2:55–69.10.1559/152304075784447289CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prescott, John Robert Victor (1993), The Maritime Political Boundaries of the World. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Robinson, Arthur H. and Petchenik, Barbara B. (1976), The Nature of Maps: Essays toward Understanding Maps and Mapping. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Schuster, John A. and Yeo, Richard R. (eds.) (1986), The Politics and Rhetoric of the Scientific Method. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-009-4560-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sismondo, Sergio (2000), “Island Biogeography and the Multiple Domains of Models”, Biology & Philosophy 15:239–258.10.1023/A:1006521714642CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silfer, Andrew T., Kinn, Gerald J., and Hassett, James M. (1987), “A Geographic Information System Utilizing the Triangular Irregular Network as a Basis for Hydrologic Modeling”, in Proceedings AUTO-CARTO 8:129–136.Google Scholar
Toulmin, Stephen (1953), The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction. London: Hutchinson & Co.Google Scholar
US Geological Survey (1967), Topographic Instructions of the United States Geological Survey, Book 3. Washington, DC: USGS.Google Scholar
Winsberg, Eric (1999), “Sanctioning Models: The Epistemology of Simulation”, Science in Context 12:275–92.10.1017/S0269889700003422CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Denis (1992), The Power of Maps. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Ziman, John (1978), Reliable Knowledge: An Exploration of the Grounds for Belief in Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar