Tradeoffs and Idealization in Biological and Chemical Modeling

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Tradeoffs and Idealization in Biological and Chemical ModelingScientific models almost always contain idealizations. This raises a number of fundamentalphilosophical questions: Is idealization inevitable regardless of the amountof data and computational power at our disposal? Does idealization have any nonpragmaticvalue or justification? Will idealization persist as science progresses?Much of the recent philosophical literature correctly suggest that idealization hasepistemic value and is likely to persist as science progress. This has been defendedin different ways, including by demonstrating how idealized models can identify corecausal phenomena. However, one important defense of idealization has not yet playeda central role in philosophical discussions: the existence of tradeoffs. Modelers havemultiple theoretical desiderata including precision, generality, and accuracy. Somedesiderata cannot be simultaneously maximized because they constrain and trade offagainst one another. This necessitates the construction of multiple idealized modelsfor a given phenomenon. Intellectual Merit: Tradeoffs and Idealization in Biological and Chemical Modeling will defend the existenceof tradeoffs among the desiderata of models and modeling and argue that thesetradeoffs are part of the explanation and justification of idealization's ubiquity. Theanalysis will focus on classic models of predation, competition, and molecular structure,as these exemplify theoretical practice in evolutionary ecology and quantum chemistry.This project can be divided into three components. The first part consists of identifyingand characterizing the most important desiderata for theoretical modeling. Examininguniversal desiderata of models as well as specific properties of ecological andchemical models, this stage of research will generate a set of definitions that are bothanalytically rigorous and consistent with scientific practice. In the second part, tradeoffsand other constraints among these desiderata will be identified. This will consist ofshowing, by both mathematical and empirical means, that increasing the magnitude ofsome desiderata will necessarily affect the magnitude of others. This analysis will yielda list of the most important tradeoffs. Finally, these analyses will be used to argue thatthe existence of tradeoffs is part of the explanation and justification for idealization.This project is primarily a contribution to the scientific and philosophical literatureabout modeling and idealization. Broader Impacts: It will also have a very direct impact on the debatebetween biologist Richard Levins and his critics over the existence of tradeoffs. WhileLevins has long maintained that simultaneously maximizing all theoretical desideratawas impossible, his lack of formal arguments for this thesis have left his insights vulnerableto critical attack. This project will yield arguments to defend Levins' position.Another wider impact concerns scientific pedagogy. Ideas from this project willbe reformulated for use in secondary and higher education with the primary goal ofmaking citizens more informed consumers of science, especially in fields such as climatescience where critics prey on public misunderstanding of modeling and idealization.A secondary goal is to improve advanced textbook discussions of the justification formodeling and theorizing.Finally, the arguments of this project may be useful in adjudicating disputes betweendifferent groups of theorists. Some theorists believe that idealization shouldultimately be eliminated from their models; others believe that idealized models willalways be important in scientific inquiry, despite their inaccuracies. Rational resolutionof these disputes might be aided by fully accounting of the rationals for idealization,including the existence of tradeoffs.