Computational Modeling
Fall 2008

For today, you should:

1) work on Chapter 7


Today:

1) FFT

2) reductionism intro

3) work on Chapter 7


For next time you should:

1) work on Chapter 7 (aim to finish Friday)

2) prepare for a quiz on Chapter 7

3) do some reading on reductionism and answer the questions below


FFT
---

Couple of errors in the book:

Page 67, Equation 7.1: {2 pi i k n / N} should be an exponent

Page 67, To the get the power spectrum density, the range of n
should be 0 to N/2.

Mini-lecture?


Reductionism vs. what?
----------------------

So far we have focused on predictive models, which are judged
primarily by their accuracy, and secondarily by the other
criteria Kuhn mentioned.

Explanatory models may (or may not) be a different thing, to
be judged by different criteria.

Explantory models are answers to "why" questions.

But "why" questions are fundamentally ill-posed, so it is not
easy to say what a satisfactory answer should look like.

   1.  What is a reductionist explanatory model?

   2.  What other kinds of explanatory models are there?

   3.  Is a reductionist model a satisfactory answer to a "why
       question"?

   4.  If so, is it the only satisfactory kind of explanatory model?

   5.  What are the criteria we might want to use to evaluate an
       explanatory model?

   6.  Why has "reductionist" become a term of deprecation (at
       least in some circles).