Workshop: Just Playing? Toy Models in the Sciences (8-9 May, 2015)
Idea and Motivation
Toy models are ubiquitous in the natural and social sciences – prominent examples include the Ising model in physics, the Lotka-Volterra model in the life sciences, and the Schelling model in the social sciences. It is characteristic of toy models that they simplify radically and often succeed in identifying the crucial features that produce a phenomenon. Toy models play an important and, though, insufficiently appreciated role in philosophy of science.
Program
May, 8th
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 09.30 - 09:45 | Welcome |
| 09:45 - 11:00 | Erwin Frey: Bacterial Games |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Coffee Break |
| 11:30 - 12:45 | Claus Beisbart: Just Playing With Computers? Toy Models and Computer Simulations |
| 12:45 - 14:15 | Lunch Break |
| 14:15 - 15:30 | Sabina Leonelli: Just a Game? Data Models in Plant Science |
| 15:30 - 16:45 | Ulrich Schollwöck: What Do Quantum Simulators Simulate? |
| 16:45 - 17:15 | Coffee Break |
| 17:15 - 18:30 | Margaret Morrison: Toy Models – More Than Playing Around |
May, 9th
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 09:30 - 10:45 | Till Grüne-Yanoff: Toy Models as Possibility-Identifying Devices |
| 10:45 - 11:15 | Coffee Break |
| 11:15 - 12:30 | Dominik Hangleiter, Stephan Hartmann and Alexander Reutlinger: Do Toy Models Yield Understanding? |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch Break |
| 14:00 - 15:15 | Ulrike Hahn: Why Toy Models Are Best |
| 15:15 - 16:30 | Rainer Hegselmann: The Bounded Confidence Model – Complexity By One Parameter |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | Coffee Break |
| 17:00 - 18:15 | Robert Sugden: Economic Models Are Not Toys – Just Fictions |
| 18:15 - 19:00 | Round Table: Conclusions and Open Discussion |
Acknowledgement:
The workshop is supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship.