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Springer handbook of model-based science
Magnani L., Bertolotti T., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2017. 1179 pp. Type: Book (978-3-319305-25-7)
Date Reviewed: Feb 8 2018

The handbook is a compilation of chapters on models and model-based reasoning applied to various science and engineering topics. The sciences include earth sciences, life sciences, and social sciences. The discussions on models and model-based reasoning use historical, philosophical, logical, mathematical, computational, and ontological perspectives. The kinds of model-based reasoning used include diagrammatic, analog, abductions, reasoning in cognitions, and more.

Five chapters in the first part discuss the basics of models. The first chapter surveys various kinds of models presented in the literature. The second chapter discusses views of scientific theories with respect to models, namely, the received/syntactic and semantic views. The third chapter describes conceptions related to representations of models. The conceptions include similarity, structural, and inferential. Chapter 4 is on the role of models in scientific explanations. Chapter 5 describes theory-based and non-theory-based simulations.

Part 2 is on the foundation of abduction. Chapter 6 presents fundamental concepts of abduction, knowledge, and logic. Chapter 7 describes various patterns of abductive inferences. The patterns are classified by kind of hypothesis, kind of evidence, and what drives the abduction. Chapter 8 describes forms of abductions with comparisons such as creative versus selective, factual versus theoretical, and explanatory versus nonexplanatory. Chapter 9 discusses manipulative abduction. It describes its role in diagrammatic reasoning.

Part 3 continues on abduction with various possible solutions of abductions. Chapter 10 introduces logics of abduction with characterizations such as inferential, computational, and epistemological. Chapter 11 discusses the inductive generalization type of inference. Chapter 12 presents abduction of singular facts, abduction of generalization, existential abduction, and conceptual abduction as four patterns of hypothetical reasoning. Chapters 13 and 14 address abduction with agent-based perspectives such as the dynamical epistemological perspective and the dialogical perspective. Chapter 15 discusses logics for inconsistencies in the abductions.

Part 4 discusses ways of model-based reasoning accepted in the sciences. Chapter 16 shows the importance of model-based reasoning mathematics in physics. Chapter 17 describes the cognitive historical approach and model-based reasoning in the creation of concepts. Chapter 18 describes the history of uses of physically similar systems in sciences. Chapter 19 discusses models in the social sciences. Chapter 20 describes model-based diagnosis. Chapter 21 discusses thought experiments and model-based reasoning in them.

Part 5 describes models in mathematics. Chapters 22 and 23 describe diagrammatic reasoning in mathematics. Euclidian diagrams are described with their formal logics. Also described is the use of diagrams in contemporary mathematical branches such as analysis, topology, and algebra. Chapter 24 presents examples and advantages of model-based reasoning in mathematical practices. Chapter 25 makes suggestions for enacting abduction actions in mathematical practices.

Part 6 is on model-based reasoning in cognitive sciences. Chapter 26 presents theories of visions and inferences in stages of visions. Chapter 27 describes reasoning with data graphs and with mechanism diagrams. Chapter 28 presents models, approaches, and experiments for mental imagery in humanoid robots. Chapter 29 describes methods and theories for links and nonlinked cognitive actions. Chapter 30 describes complexities in models of cognition. Chapter 31 describes mechanistic reasoning.

Part 7 is on computational aspects. Chapter 32 introduces computations. Chapter 33 is on computational scientific discoveries and describes various computational methods including searches, rule-based reasoning systems, data mining, and evolutionary computations. Chapters 34 and 35 describe computer simulations. The description includes various types of simulations, relations of simulations with experiments, models, and challenges of simulating complex systems. Chapter 36 discusses experiments in robotics. Chapter 37 on biorobotics describes the robots, which are models of living systems.

Part 8 is on models in earth and life sciences. Chapter 38 discusses symmetries in the models. Chapter 39 discusses analog models in physics. Chapter 40 describes the importance of models of chemical structures in organic chemistry. Chapter 41 introduces conceptual, numerical, physical, and multimodel approaches used in geosciences. Chapter 42 describes various models used in biological sciences, particularly for evolutionary biology. Chapter 43, on models in cognitive sciences, presents open problems in such models. Chapter 44 is on models for social sciences. It describes key concepts in such models including neighboring.

Part 9 is on models in engineering and human sciences. Chapter 45, on architectural modeling, describes the modern techniques and their implementations. Chapter 46 provides a taxonomy of modeling in archaeology. Chapter 47 describes modeling in industrial designs. Chapter 48 is on methods used for restructuring incomplete models. Chapter 49 is on models in education, describing directions of such models. Chapter 50 is on the use of models in crime prevention. Chapter 51 describes various models used in financial markets, including investments, values, and risks. Chapter 52 describes modeling applications in the social sciences. Chapter 53 discusses the moral aspects of models.

The beginning chapters effectively express the struggle to find some logic in scientific discoveries and the role of the models. The ending chapters depict success stories of modeling in various application areas. Each chapter can be read independently. The ontological and informative aspects of chapters can be used by students of various disciplines at various graduate levels. Direct computer-related areas such as simulation, cognition, robotics, and reasoning find their places in this book.

Reviewer:  Maulik A. Dave Review #: CR145843 (1805-0217)
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