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Learning from a toy model: the Kac ring
1 : Institut supérieur de philosophie, Université catholique de Louvain
Scientific models misrepresent their target in that they contain omissions and idealizations. How can scientists genuinely learn something from models? Answers have centered on an analysis of models as approximate descriptions. However such an analysis falls short in accounting for how toy models can teach us things about actual empirical systems. In this paper, I contend that toy models are better analyzed in terms of scientific caricatures. In arguing for such an account, I develop a case study. I elaborate on the way the Kac ring model is used to study an attempt at explaining the second law of thermodynamics.
