Chapters with subchapters:

                     Model history is culture history

                     From early man to cyberspace

 

In brackets: pages

31 texts: ca. 160 pages

78 figures: ca. 320 pages

 

 

Content with abstract and List of Figures (5)

 

01: General introduction

Multiple use and meaning of „model“ and its cognate words (9)

The concept of model spans the whole cultural history

There is no science of models

The multitude of uses and synonyms is not new

Today’s broad spectrum of uses and synonyms

Comprehensive classifications of models?

Few attempts to span all kinds of models and to work out a model theory

Why also „mould” and “moulding”, “modulation”, “modulus”, “modulo” and “module”?

Old tradition – new fashion

Mindless use of words

„Model muddle“ and „crisis of representation“

“Pictorial turn”

What do scientists really do?

 

02: Gods construct and use models (2)

God uses models, works like a modeler, shows models and serves as model

Prometheus as „first sculptor“

 

03: Animals construct and use models (2)

Animals use models with technical and social intelligence

 

04: The long way from “modulus” to “model” (12)

”Modulus” has been in use for 2000 years

The Indo-European root of “modulus” and “modus”: med- means measure, to measure

The Latin verb „modulor“ and the noun „modulus“ were used in music and rhetoric as well as in architecture, mostly meaning rhythm and measure

„Modulus“ has been absorbed into modern European languages at different times and by various routes

The complicated genesis of the Italian word "modello”

„Modello“ arrives in French, German and English

Since 1600: Continuous change of wording and spelling

1555-1660: Mental design as model

Since 1800: Technical use of model

Explosive spread of the concept of model

 

05: Reflections on the use of models (11)

Old Greece: Xenophanes und Platon

1077-1092

1120-1160

1228-1235

High Middle Ages und Renaissance: Scholastics and theorists of art

1500-1700: Theological and scientific zeal

19th century

20th century

 

 

I: Archetype, idea (3)

The idea of a right, good object

Plato on the view of the craft

Plato on the Philosopherr

Johannes Kepler

Locke vs. Leibniz

 

II. Abstraction, idealization, sign (4)

The treatment of material according to mathematical principles

Polygones as symbolic models of the cosmos

Idealization

Abstraction

Signs need to be decoded

Charles Sanders Peirce: Theory of signs

Max Weber: Ideal types

Ideal towns and buildings

Bali villages mirror the cosmological total system

 

III: Type (3)

Types since Antiquity

The English word „type“

Types of today

 

IV: Pattern, prescription, plan (7)

Definitions

Mental models of early man

Mental models: doctrine, mentality, Denkarten, opinions, prescriptions

Nations as models

Concrete models as patterns

 

V: Paragon, idol (3)

Defintions

Sketch or study for a finished work

Paragons in the New Testament

Idols

Paragons in Psychology

 

VI: Draft, design, hypothesis (10)

Sketch sheets

Architectural competitive tender

1-1200 To build from models and ideas, but not from drawings?

Use of architectural models

Since 1450: First theories of architectural models

Since 1390: architectural models

The modeling process in mind

Hypotheses and prototypes

Theories and hypotheses

Henri Poincaré (1902-1908)

Learning from models - tinkering

Working models

The use of images in the 19th century physics

1845-1873: “Electrical images” - “mechanical representation” - “geometrical model” - “imaginary system” - “working model”

„Paper tools“ in chemistry in the 19th century

Computer Aided Design (CAD)

Theories of design

 

VII: Explanation, interpetation (6)

Prehistoric times

Esotericism, paranormal

Myths as explanation of the unknown by known

Religion

„Weltanschauung“ and „Weltbild“

Conspiracy theories

 

VIII: Theory (9)

The world of philosophy

Philosophein = theorein

Systems of philosophy

-isms

Monism, dualism, pluralism, indifferentism

1950-2000: 24 different philosophical approaches

The world of science

The beginning of modern science

Description, understanding, value judgment, positivism

A third kind of science between natural sciences and humanities

New Age science

The nature of “reality” and “theory”, of “model” and “hypothesis”

Four levels of theories

 

IX: Analogy (6)

Analogies in language and literature, mystics and theology, art and technics

Kepler, Newton, Leibniz, Clarke

The use of hydrodynamic analogies

Holistic thinking: The organism as analogy

Mechanical models

Analogies in 19th century physics

Atoms as solar system, electrons as saturn rings

Theoretical approaches

 

X: Measure (4)

Roots of the meaning

Various measures

Definitions for „module“, „modulus“ and „modulo“

E. g. Elasticity modulus

Module in abstract algebra

Modulor

insert: Module in architecture

 

XI: Shape, regulation (3)

From regular measure to „the science of good modulation“

Examples of „modulation“ in English

Definitions in English dictionaries

 

XII: Visualization, illustration (9)

Symbols and Metaphors

Descriptive world models

Illustrated books for instruction

Drawings of descriptions and drawings of explanations

Graphic visualization

The Golden age of visual instruction: Baroque

Since 1650: improvement of common education

Visualizing a physical theory or law in the 19th century

19th century: Visualization also in mathematics …

… in chemistry …

… in medicine …

… and in psychology

Visualization in economy in the 20th century

21th century: still models as visualizations

 

XIII. Interpretation of a theory (4)

Since 1915: Extension of the word „model“ in the modern logic

Further extension and „theory of models“

Wilfrid Hodges on terminology: models - pseudomodels – structures – systems - theories

Pseudomodels and abstract models

Around 1950: Alfred Tarski and Abraham Robinson: „Theory of models“

1960 Robinson: „standard models“ and „nonstandard models“

In science: The world as a model of the theory

A clash of terminology?

 

XIV: Representation, description, image (8)

Types and aims of small- and big-scale model

Cave man produced world models and artistic objects

Neolithic models

Ship models

Anatomical models from wax and papier-mâché – and moulages

Use of experimental models

Making vivid invisible phenomena

Sand table exercises

Since 1930 mathematical treatment of economic questions

Since 1944: refinements of  economic models and new models in other sciences

Computer simulation

Scientific visualization is more a representation

Starting from 1960: upswing of research on imagery

Theories of representation

 

XV: Sample, specimen, guinea pig (3)

Showing swatches

Fashion dolls

Samples as extracts from society

Guinea pigs in psychology

 

XVI: Worlds of dreams (1)

A world of their own

 

XVII: Worlds of plays & games (2)

Plays and games create model worlds

Forming of personality

Toys

Virtual worlds

 

XVIII: Worlds of art & entertainment (6)

Worlds of art: “mimesis”, deception, fiction, simulation, creation

Various kinds of performing arts in Antiquity ...

... in the Middle Ages ...

... and since 1425

Popular sports

Pleasure gardens

Zoos, botanical gardens and amusement parks

 

XIX: Worlds of media & internet (3)

Since 1600: The periodic press creates „secondary reality“

Since 1890: Audio books and features

Since 1895: The movies: The „Dream factory“

Since 1930: „Romance and Reality of Television“

„Life at second hand“

Since 1992: Like a global brain: Internet

 

XX: worlds of teaching & learning (1)

Simplification and repetition

 

XXI: Record (3)

From narration to writing

Archives, libraries and cabinets

Model collections

1790-1880: American patent models

 

XXII: Emotional & cult object (3)

Processions

Models of donors

Devotional figures and votive objects

Wax pictures of defuncts: Cerae

Religious fetishes – sexual fetishes – commodity fetishism

 

XXIII: Substitute (6)

Early man produced substitutes for limbs and organs

Prostheses

Automata

Since 1920: Electrical and electronic robots

Humans as "models" for artists

Mannequins and prostitutes

Outcast and animals as substitutes for humans

 

XXIV: Mould &/or cast (5)

History of the word „mould“

Synonyms for "mould"

Some definitions of „mould“

Material as well as abstract and poetic significance

Forming of bricks

Baking tins

Beauty of bronze casting

Iron casting

1 - 1500: Printing forms for textiles

Printing on paper

Cast - copies

„Mould“ in dentistry and „moulage“ in criminal investigation

Industrial multiplication

 

XXV: Original &/or copy (2)

Special definitions of „model“

A sort of product, particular style

„Module“ as component

 

 

78 Figures

Fig.   1-10 (35)

Fig. 11-20 (28)

Fig. 21-30 (80)

Fig. 31-40 (56)

Fig. 41-50 (33)

Fig. 51-60 (19)

Fig. 61-70 (43)

Fig. 71-78 (22)