ABSTRACT
The main idea of this chapter is that modeling is a basic infrastructure component of any purposeful behavior of human beings. There are two methods of building models from raw empirical data: analysis and synthesis. Their algorithms are cited in this chapter. Then follows analytic descriptions of all types of models: abstract ones (artificial and natural classifications) and real ones (of direct, indirect, and conventional similarity to modeled object). Further goes synthetic description of cognitive and pragmatic models; their specific peculiarities are discussed. The process of cognition of reality consists of sequentially building a hierarchy of all the more informative models: data, information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.
