CEFISES Seminar: Guido Prieto, « Are model organisms models?: A view from DEKI »

Livestream https://www.youtube.com/@CEFISES

Series: Models

Speaker: Guido I. Prieto (Bielefeld University & Institute for Studies of Science)

Title: Are model organisms models?: A view from DEKI

Abstract

Mainstream philosophical accounts of model organism-based research either treat model organisms as models or make their status as models central to understanding whether and how they represent. In contrast, in this talk I argue that model organisms are not models but model ‘carriers,’ only abstracted and selected ‘parts’ of which are included in biological models that can be used to legitimately represent similar target phenomena in other organisms. To set up this argument, I mobilize and refine the DEKI account of scientific representation, and offer an integrated picture of how representation with model organisms works. Moreover, I explain how my framework accommodates model organisms’ special epistemic place within the scientific landscape as highly versatile model carriers. Finally, I show that my account satisfactorily reconstructs case studies from scientific practice and paves the way to reconcile opposing positions on the representational status of model organisms to build a more robust epistemology of model organism-based research.