The structure of tradeoffs in model building |
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Authors: | John Matthewson Michael Weisberg |
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Institution: | (1) Research School of Social Sciences and Centre for Macroevolution and Macroecology, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia;(2) Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA |
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Abstract: | Despite their best efforts, scientists may be unable to construct models that simultaneously exemplify every theoretical virtue.
One explanation for this is the existence of tradeoffs: relationships of attenuation that constrain the extent to which models
can have such desirable qualities. In this paper, we characterize three types of tradeoffs theorists may confront. These characterizations
are then used to examine the relationships between parameter precision and two types of generality. We show that several of
these relationships exhibit tradeoffs and discuss what consequences those tradeoffs have for theoretical practice.
John Matthewson and Michael Weisberg have contributed equally to this paper. |
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Keywords: | Tradeoff Model Modeling Biological models Richard Levins Generality Precision Theoretical virtues |
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