by The problem of extrapolation There are two basic challenges that confront any account of extrapolation that seeks to resolve the shortcomings of simple induction. One challenge, which I call extrapolator’s circle, arises from the fact that extrapolation is worthwhile only when there are important limitations on what one can learn about the target by studying it directly. The challenge, then, is to explain how the suitability of the model as a basis for extrapolation can be established given only limited, partial information about the target … The second challenge is a direct consequence of the heterogeneity of populations studied in biology and social sciences. Because of this heterogeneity, it is inevitable there will be causally relevant differences
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Lars Pålsson Syll considers the following as important: Theory of Science & Methodology
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The problem of extrapolation
There are two basic challenges that confront any account of extrapolation that seeks to resolve the shortcomings of simple induction. One challenge, which I call extrapolator’s circle, arises from the fact that extrapolation is worthwhile only when there are important limitations on what one can learn about the target by studying it directly. The challenge, then, is to explain how the suitability of the model as a basis for extrapolation can be established given only limited, partial information about the target … The second challenge is a direct consequence of the heterogeneity of populations studied in biology and social sciences. Because of this heterogeneity, it is inevitable there will be causally relevant differences between the model and the target population.
In economics — as a rule — we can’t experiment on the real-world target directly. To experiment, economists therefore standardly construct ‘surrogate’ models and perform ‘experiments’ on them. To be of interest to us, these surrogate models have to be shown to be relevantly ‘similar’ to the real-world target, so that knowledge from the model can be exported to the real-world target. The fundamental problem highlighted by Steel is that this ‘bridging’ is deeply problematic — to show that what is true of the model is also true of the real-world target, we have to know what is true of the target, but to know what is true of the target we have to know that we have a good model …