Collin Rice's guest appearances

Collin Rice

New Books in Science

New Books in Philosophy

New Books Network

The MIT Press Podcast

Travis Dumsday

Jonathan Birch

Kenneth Schaffner

Lisa Bortolotti

Stephanie Ruphy

K. Linder

Phillipa Chong

Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther

Nicholas Shea

Helen Longino

Kathryn Conrad

Carl Gillett

Matt Cook

Samuel Schindler

Paul Thagard

OwlTail

Most of us agree that science aims to tell us what is true about the world. But how do we get at the truth by using theories and models that deliberately, pervasively, and ineliminably distort what they are about? How does a model that makes wholly unrealistic, even impossible, assumptions about reality help explain it and provide us with understanding? In Leveraging Distortions: Explanation, Idealization, and Universality in Science (MIT Press, 2021), Collin Rice tackles this puzzle by examining how idealization figures in the development of models and how such distortions help provide otherwise inaccessible explanations. Rice, an associate professor of philosophy at Bryn Mawr College, takes issue with the dominant view of scientific explanation as primarily a matter of providing causal information, and argues that providing information about what is irrelevant is what often does the explanatory work. The book presents a well-structured challenge to many of the views of scientific explanation that have dominated philosophy of science for decades.Carrie Figdor is professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/philosophy

Most of us agree that science aims to tell us what is true about the world. But how do we get at the truth by using theories and models that deliberately, pervasively, and ineliminably distort what they are about? How does a model that makes wholly unrealistic, even impossible, assumptions about reality help explain it and provide us with understanding? In <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9780262542616" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leveraging Distortions: Explanation, Idealization, and Universality in Science</a> (MIT Press, 2021), Collin Rice tackles this puzzle by examining how idealization figures in the development of models and how such distortions help provide otherwise inaccessible explanations. Rice, an associate professor of philosophy at Bryn Mawr College, takes issue with the dominant view of scientific explanation as primarily a matter of providing causal information, and argues that providing information about what is irrelevant is what often does the explanatory work. The book presents a well-structured challenge to many of the views of scientific explanation that have dominated philosophy of science for decades.<a href="https://clas.uiowa.edu/philosophy/people/carrie-figdor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Carrie Figdor</a> is professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>Support our show by becoming a premium member! <a href="https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/philosophy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/philosophy</a>

Collin Rice, "Leveraging Distortions: Explanation, Idealization, and Universality in Science" (MIT Press, 2021)

Most of us agree that science aims to tell us what is true about the world. But how do we get at the truth by using theories and models that deliberately, pervasively, and ineliminably distort what they are about? How does a model that makes wholly unrealistic, even impossible, assumptions about reality help explain it and provide us with understanding? In Leveraging Distortions: Explanation, Idealization, and Universality in Science (MIT Press, 2021), Collin Rice tackles this puzzle by examining how idealization figures in the development of models and how such distortions help provide otherwise inaccessible explanations. Rice, an associate professor of philosophy at Bryn Mawr College, takes issue with the dominant view of scientific explanation as primarily a matter of providing causal information, and argues that providing information about what is irrelevant is what often does the explanatory work. The book presents a well-structured challenge to many of the views of scientific explanation that have dominated philosophy of science for decades.Carrie Figdor is professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

Most of us agree that science aims to tell us what is true about the world. But how do we get at the truth by using theories and models that deliberately, pervasively, and ineliminably distort what they are about? How does a model that makes wholly unrealistic, even impossible, assumptions about reality help explain it and provide us with understanding? In <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9780262542616" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leveraging Distortions: Explanation, Idealization, and Universality in Science</a> (MIT Press, 2021), Collin Rice tackles this puzzle by examining how idealization figures in the development of models and how such distortions help provide otherwise inaccessible explanations. Rice, an associate professor of philosophy at Bryn Mawr College, takes issue with the dominant view of scientific explanation as primarily a matter of providing causal information, and argues that providing information about what is irrelevant is what often does the explanatory work. The book presents a well-structured challenge to many of the views of scientific explanation that have dominated philosophy of science for decades.<a href="https://clas.uiowa.edu/philosophy/people/carrie-figdor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Carrie Figdor</a> is professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>Support our show by becoming a premium member! <a href="https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science</a>