ABSTRACT

There are versions of the Model-Theoretical View that do not rely on structures to articulate what models are and how they represent. We introduce Giere’s view that models are abstract entities that represent their target systems by being similar to them. After articulating this similarity account of representation, we discuss different issues that arise with it. We then turn to Suppe’s view that models are abstract replicas, and we investigate how this account fares with the problems and conditions we previously identified for an account of representation.