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Models and type-hierarchies

cognitive foundations of iconic thinking

Rom Harré

pp. 97-111

Abstract

In the sciences there are two main devices that are used for iconic thinking, graphical representations and models. Though models can appear in different modes of expression, from pictures to bench-top gadgets, they are abstractions from, idealisations of and/or analogues of those "matters' which they represent, which we shall call their 'subjects". In thinking about some subject matter with the help of models we thinking about something other than the model, what it represents, stands for or in place of. Model-thinking is thus a species of Polanyi's proximal/distal principle, thinking of something through something else [1].

Publication details

Published in:

Paton Ray, Neilson Irene (1999) Visual representations and interpretations. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 97-111

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-0563-3_10

Full citation:

Harré Rom (1999) „Models and type-hierarchies: cognitive foundations of iconic thinking“, In: R. Paton & I. Neilson (eds.), Visual representations and interpretations, Dordrecht, Springer, 97–111.