Kevin D. Hoover (Duke): “Models and Piecemeal Empirical Knowledge”

Abstract: Models are ubiquitous tools in economics and many other fields, though their epistemic status has raised puzzles, such as how models that apparently misrepresent the world can serve our explanatory purposes. Such puzzles seem largely to be an artifact of a misconception of what it means for a model to represent the truth and what it means to acquire knowledge. This paper suggests a view of the function of models that tries to account for their successful roles as instruments for the acquisition of, especially empirical knowledge in economics, in the face of a complex economic reality in which knowledge is acquired in a piecemeal fashion.

Kevin D. Hoover is a Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Duke University. His research interests include Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics, the Philosophy and Methodology of Empirical Economics, and the History of Economics.

Chair: Professor Richard Bradley

This is a public lecture with no ticket or pre-registration required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.

This lecture forms part of the Explanation, Normativity, and Uncertainty in Economic Modelling conference.