The emergence of the modelling attitude

A modelling attitude emerged through many sciences in the nineteenth century. This chapter focuses on its development in the physical sciences in the second half of the century, tracing a historical narrative that begins with the ‘relativity thesis’ in the Scottish Enlightenment, and its deployment by the likes of William Thomson and James Clerk Maxwell to foster scientific knowledge ‘by analogy’. The use of analogies became firmly established in Cambridge (through its mathematical tripos), particularly in relation to the kinetic theory of gases and the electromagnetic theory of the aether. Meanwhile, in a parallel development, Hermann von Helmholtz in Berlin, Heinrich Hertz in Bonn, and Ludwig Boltzmann in Vienna developed a Bildtheorie, a more comprehensive theory of modelling methodology that has eventuated in our contemporary modelling practice. Philosophical reflection upon this practice has woven in and out over the decades, but the present-day interest is very intense. History also holds lessons for the contemporary debates around scientific representation.