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    False models can be used as means to arrive at true theories — Carmelics
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    Supports→False models serve a legitimate epistemic function in science

    False models can be used as means to arrive at true theories

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    False models serve a legitimate epistemic function in science83%Computational models have value in modeling the construction and recog...81%The model itself, rather than a true description of the world, is the ...80%The Geach–Boolos model cannot be relied upon to secure the consistency...80%

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    But is it really the truth of the explanans that makes the model explanatory? Other authors pursue a more radical line and argue that false models explain not only despite their falsity, but in fact because of their falsity. Cartwright (1983: 44) maintains that “the truth doesn’t explain much”. In her so-called “simulacrum account of explanation”, she suggests that we explain a phenomenon by constructing a model that fits the phenomenon into the basic framework of a grand theory (1983: Ch. 8). O

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