THE COGNITIVE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC THEORIES

This paper explores a new reason for preferring a model-theoretic appr oach to understanding the nature of scientific theories. Identifying t he models in philosophers' model-theoretic accounts of theories with t he concepts in cognitive scientists' accounts of categorization sugges ts a structure to families of models far richer than has commonly been assumed. Using classical mechanics as an example, it is argued that f amilies of models may be ''mapped'' as an array with ''horizontal'' gr aded structures, multiply hierarchical ''vertical'' structures, and lo cal ''radial'' structures. These structures promise important implicat ions for how scientific theories are learned and used in actual scient ific practice.