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Approximation and Idealization: Why the Difference Matters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

John D. Norton
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Abstract

It is proposed that we use the term “approximation” for inexact description of a target system and “idealization” for another system whose properties also provide an inexact description of the target system. Since systems generated by a limiting process can often have quite unexpected—even inconsistent—properties, familiar limit processes used in statistical physics can fail to provide idealizations but merely provide approximations.

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Type
Research Article
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 207 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I thank Elay Sheck, Mike Tamir, and Giovanni Valente for helpful discussion and Bob Batterman, Nazim Bouatta, Jeremy Butterfield, Erik Curiel, and Wayne Myrvold (and students of the last two at the University of Western Ontario) for helpful remarks on an earlier draft.

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