[FRIAM] description - explanation - metaphor - model - and reply

[Eric Charles]

There is an interesting issue that often comes up in these contexts, in
which someone asserts that the models mean something all on their own.  If
it is someone who has picked up our language,  they might,  for example,
ask "What does the model intend? The Model, itself? "

Glen does this by saying "there's good reason to believe you will *never*
actually understand how your model works."

I have seen Nick oscillate in those discussions, towards and away from
thinking he needs to rewrite everything.

I insist that is not the direction should be going in.  The model doesn't
intend anything.  A person,  who is offering a model,  intends something by
it,  and does not intend other things.  Because THAT is what we'r are
talking about.... There IS a chance (though no guarentee) that the person
offering a model (fully) understands what they do or do not intend to match
between the model and the situation that is modeled.

We aren't talking about anything other than people doing things. X is "a
model" if/when someone thinks an aspect of X matches something happening
somewhere else,  and all models contain both intended and unintended
implications.  This makes a question of whether or not someone "fully
understands their model" a question primarily about the understanding,  not
primarily about "the model itself".





On Wed, Jan 15, 2020, 1:13 PM uǝlƃ ☣ <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

> Did Epstein ever respond to your criticism?
>
> For what little it's worth, I disagree with your lesson. Obtuse models can
> be very useful. In fact, there's good reason to believe you will *never*
> actually understand how your model works, any more than you'll ever
> understand how that model's referent(s) work. I may even be able to use
> Pierce to argue that to you. 8^)
>
> On 1/15/20 9:23 AM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
> > The lesson is, if you
> > don’t understand how your model works, you aren’t doing yourself any
> favors by inventing it.  This led to my war with Epstein in the pages of
> JSSS about the relation between explanation and prediction.
>
> --
> ☣ uǝlƃ
>
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