Taylor's Response

From English 194 Wiki

McCarty's discussion of models seems to revolve around the common problem of the signifier, and the signified, or as he defines it: the model and the concept. In his terms, he first attempts to describe the difference between the concept and the model. However, while describing the model, McCarty utilizes interesting diction, with words such as “representation”, “heuristic”, and “design”. These are of particular interest because each closely relates to the notion of the concept.

Moreover, McCarty also notes that models, regardless of how perfected they might be, are "temporary states in a process of coming to know rather than fixed structures" (McCarty 27). If it is the case that models inherently lack the ability to describe the essence of what is being modeled, then what is the purpose of them in the first place? If a model is never a perfect, and if new things are constantly learned from models, then why are they used to describe the occurrences around us? Clearly there must be a purpose, since much of the world around us is understood in terms of models. Scientific and social science theory are strongly founded in the UC system, as well as many other universities around the country. Furthermore, research is dependant upon the government (in terms of grants) in order to discover new theories and models.

In my opinion, I am forced to question McCarty’s claim that new things are constantly found from models. Because models are manipulability, then wouldn’t it seem that constant revisions would bring that model to some sort of perfection?