Preface

The Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary yet synthetic reference guide to the fundamentals, state of the art, and present-day developments of models and model based reasoning in science and technology, addressing both the practitioners’ perspective and the philosophical, cognitive, and epistemological issues. The aim of the handbook is to offer scholars and advanced students belonging to different fields the possibility to access the core of this essential aspect of science in a unique, reliable source on the topic, edited by a team of renown international experts in philosophy of science, general epistemology, history of science, mathematics, cognitive science, computer science, physics, life sciences, engineering, architecture, and economics. This Springer Handbook, representing the definitive desk reference, will guide the readers to the theoretical and cognitive nature of models, as well as to their practical and logical side, also framing the inferential dimension concerning their role in hypothetical reasoning, abduction, and creativity when constructed, adopted, and manipulated across various disciplines and practices. The inclusion of key chapters dealing with the actual use of both mathematical and computational models in robotics, life sciences, physics and chemistry, as well as of the extended use of diagrams, schemes, tables, and all kinds of visual representations, fostering a better understanding of the topic, makes this handbook an ideal application-oriented reference guide.