ABSTRACT
The major developments in twentieth-century physics, grouped under the general headings of quantum theory and relativity, have provoked much discussion and re-evaluation of the subject-object relationship in natural science and, to a lesser extent, the role of models in the development and articulation of physical theory. This chapter attempts to approach the subject-object problem from a standpoint developed from an analysis of the nature and function of models as a basis of explanation in physics, in different historical periods and areas of study within the field. A distinction between several major types of model observable at work in classical physics relates to the amount of detail contained in the pictorial description of the model as opposed to the amount of detail in the observational situation to which it relates. The quantum-mechanical model, employs in general a plurality of pictorial representations within a single model, which separates in simple situations into the several classical models mathematically related and restricted.
