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    The presence of a strange attractor in a model's state sp... — Carmelics
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    The presence of a strange attractor in a model's state space does not constitute an explanation of chaotic behavior in the target system.

    CausationTruth & Knowledge
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    1 reason against

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    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Explanation requires ontic grounding: the explanans must cite causally efficacious features of the target system, not artifacts of representational choice.
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    • 2.Strange attractors are representational constructs whose existence depends on the mathematical embedding chosen, not invariant features of the physical system.
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    • 3.Salmon's causal-mechanical account and Woodward's interventionist framework both require that genuine explanations track real causal structure, which state-space geometry does not guarantee.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Under the 'imperfect model' scenario standard in chaos theory, there is no unique state-space representation, so no single attractor can be the explanatory ground for observed behavior.
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    • 2.If explanatory force derives from the attractor's mathematical properties rather than any physical mechanism in the target system, the explanation is merely instrumental, not ontic.
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    • 3.Cartwright's critique of theoretical laws shows that mathematically elegant structures in models regularly fail to describe the causally active components actually producing the phenomenon.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.A strange attractor is an object in state space, not in the physical space of the target system's activity.
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    • 2.A trajectory in state space is a way of gaining useful information about the target system via the faithful model assumption, but it is different from trajectories of how an actual system's properties change with respect to time.
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    • 3.The fact that a trajectory in state space spirals toward a strange attractor does not imply that the target system's behavior in physical space is approaching that attractor (except possibly under the perfect model scenario).
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    CausationTruth & Knowledge

    Connections

    3 topics

    Modality & Possibility2 linkedPhilosophy of Language1 linkedSkepticism1 linked

    Related

    A strange attractor is an object in state space, not in the physical space of th...A trajectory in state space is a way of gaining useful information about the tar...Cartwright's critique of theoretical laws shows that mathematically elegant stru...Explanation requires ontic grounding: the explanans must cite causally efficacio...
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    If explanatory force derives from the attractor's mathematical properties rather...Salmon's causal-mechanical account and Woodward's interventionist framework both...

    Similar

    The presence of a strange attractor in state space is only a mark of c...94%The fact that a trajectory in state space spirals toward a strange att...84%Physical systems cannot have strange attractors with infinitely intric...77%Physical systems lack the infinitely intricate structure of a strange ...77%

    Source

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    SEP: chaos
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    Suppose we appealed to strange attractors in our models or in state space reconstruction techniques. Would this be evidence that there is a strange attractor in the target system’s behavior? Modulo worries raised in §5.1, even if the presence of a strange attractor in the state space was both a necessary and sufficient condition for the model being chaotic, this would not amount to an explanation of chaotic behavior in the target system. First, the strange attractor is an object in state space
    Extraction notes

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    Details

    Strange attractors are representational constructs whose existence depends on th...
    The fact that a trajectory in state space spirals toward a strange attractor doe...
    Under the 'imperfect model' scenario standard in chaos theory, there is no uniqu...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit