By a false model, all I mean is a model that isn’t exactly the same as the reality it’s supposed to model. It’s probably a useless notion (except for maybe in theoretical physics?), but some people see textbook econ and think “people aren’t rational, therefore textbook economics is wrong, therefore my favorite public policy will work.” The last step isn’t always there or just a single step, but it’s typically the end result. I’ve gotten into the habit of making the “all models are false” point when discussing economic models just to combat this mindset.
In general, it distresses me that so few people understand that scientists create maps, not exact replicas of the territory.
Treating ethical theories as models seems so natural now that you mention it. We have some preference structure that know very little about. What should we do? The same thing we did with all sorts of phenomenon that we knew very little about—model it!
By a false model, all I mean is a model that isn’t exactly the same as the reality it’s supposed to model. It’s probably a useless notion (except for maybe in theoretical physics?), but some people see textbook econ and think “people aren’t rational, therefore textbook economics is wrong, therefore my favorite public policy will work.” The last step isn’t always there or just a single step, but it’s typically the end result. I’ve gotten into the habit of making the “all models are false” point when discussing economic models just to combat this mindset.
In general, it distresses me that so few people understand that scientists create maps, not exact replicas of the territory.
Treating ethical theories as models seems so natural now that you mention it. We have some preference structure that know very little about. What should we do? The same thing we did with all sorts of phenomenon that we knew very little about—model it!