Modeling in Biology and Economics
28-30 May, 2008
University of Helsinki

Organized by Michael Weisberg (University of Pennsylvania) and Uskali Mäki
(Academy of Finland) with TINT [Trends and Tensions in Intellectual Integration],
sponsored by the Academy of Finland

Much of biological and economic theorizing takes place by modeling, the indirect study of
real-world structures by the construction and examination of models. Indeed books about
biological and economic theory are really books about models, many of which are highly
idealized and chosen for their explanatory power and analytical convenience, rather than fit
with known data sets. Philosophers of science have recognized these facts and have developed
literatures about the nature of models, modeling, idealization, and model testing for both of
these disciplines. Remarkably, however, there is almost no overlap between the "modeling in
biology" and "modeling in economics" literatures. The purpose of this conference is to change
this. TINT is proud to host the first ever conference on modeling in biology and economics.
The goal of this conference is to cross-polinate and help unify the literatures on biological
and economic modeling. Discussions will be focused on how theorists use idealized models to
describe and explain real-world target systems. This covers issues of model/world relations,
model/use relations, and the functions and manipulations of idealizations in modelling.
The conference will consist of a number of invited target papers to be given by Peter
Godfrey-Smith, Kevin Hoover, Hanna Kokko, Uskali Mäki, Robert Sugden, Michael
Weisberg, and William Wimsatt. A number of contributed papers on the conference topic will
also be accepted. If you are interested in contributing a paper, please send a detailed abstract
to Uskali Mäki uskali.maki@helsinki.fi by 15 December, 2008.
http://www.helsinki.fi/filosofia/tint

Back to ISHPSSB Listserv on the Web