Just Playing? Toy Models in the Sciences

Toy models are ubiquitous in the natural and social sciences – prominent examples include the Ising model in physics, the Lotka-Volterra model in the life sciences, and the Schelling model in the social sciences. It is characteristic of toy models that they simplify radically and often succeed in identifying the crucial features that produce a phenomenon. Toy models play an important and, though, insufficiently appreciated role in philosophy of science. This workshop addresses the following questions regarding the epistemic functions of toy models in the natural and social sciences:

- Do toy models represent 'real' target systems? Or do scientists just play around with models?
- Do toy models provide reliable predictions?
- How should one interpret the idealized assumptions in toy models?
- Which role do toy models play as a tool of argument/consensus-finding in the scientific community?
- How are simple toy models related to complex simulations?
- Are toy models explanatory?
- Do toy models yield scientific understanding?


SPEAKERS:

Claus Beisbart (University of Bern, Department of Philosophy)
Erwin Frey (LMU Munich, Department of Statistical and Biological Physics)
Till Grüne-Yanoff (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm)
Ulrike Hahn (Birkbeck University of London, Department of Psychological Sciences)
Dominik Hangleiter (LMU Munich, MCMP)
Stephan Hartmann (LMU Munich, MCMP)
Rainer Hegselmann (University of Bayreuth, Department of Philosophy and Economics)
Sabina Leonelli (University of Exeter, Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology)
Margaret Morrison (University of Toronto, Department of Philosophy)
Alexander Reutlinger (LMU Munich, MCMP)
Ulrich Schollwöck (LMU Munich, Department of Theoretical Nanophysics)
Robert Sugden (University of East Anglia, School of Economics)


DATES AND REGISTRATION:

Workshop Date: May 8-9, 2015
Registration Deadline: April 25, 2015

Everyone is welcome to attend! Please e-mail the organizers in advance: Dominik Hangleiter ([email protected]), or Alexander Reutlinger ([email protected]).


ORGANIZERS: Dominik Hangleiter and Alexander Reutlinger