Michela Massimi (University of Edinburgh)
I analyse the exploratory function of two main modelling practices: targetless fictional models and hypothetical perspectival models. In both cases, I argue, modelers invite us to imagine or conceive something about the target system, which is either known to be non-existent (fictional models) or just hypothetical (in perspectival models). I clarify the kind of imagining or conceiving involved in each modelling practice, and I show how each — in its own right — delivers important modal knowledge. I illustrate these two kinds of exploratory models with Maxwell's ether model and SUSY models at the LHC.
