How modeling can go wrong

Patrick Grim

Nicholas Rescher

pp. 75-80

in: Philosophy & Technology 26 (1), 2013.

Abstract

Modeling and simulation clearly have an upside. My discussion here will deal with the inevitable downside of modeling — the sort of things that can go wrong. It will set out a taxonomy for the pathology of models — a catalogue of the various ways in which model contrivance can go awry. In the course of that discussion, I also call on some of my past experience with models and their vulnerabilities.