Scientific modelling and knowledge conversion: a comparative study of representation styles

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The representational nature of scientific models is a matter of general consensus among philosophers of science: models are normally meant to represent portions ofreality (henceforth, 'targets'), and this is one pivotal reason for creating them and reasoning about them. However, important questions about the exact functioning ofthe representational relation between models and targets still remain unanswered. The primary question of this project specifically focuses on the conversion ofknowledge about models into knowledge about their targets. This question can be addressed in a descriptive sense and a prescriptive one. The descriptive dimensionregards how knowledge conversion takes place, while the prescriptive one concerns the epistemological justification and validity criteria of this conversion.