Imagining Scientific Objects as a Bridge Between Metaphysics and Science

Abstract

I define: 1) “imaginary objects” as objects produced by scientific imagination
for understanding phenomena: metaphors, analogies, models and reductions are
net-works in which these objects appear. 2) “metaphysics” as a type of
background thinking about categories and princi-ples of reality. 3) “phenomena”
as real things insofar as they are perceived, according to certain parameters,
by a scientific observer. – My claim is that scientific imagination builds,
according to rules of abstraction, combination and idealization, a map of
possible worlds with the fictional objects implicit in scientific hypotheses.
The problem is how to choose among these objects. The solution con-cerns not
only experimentation or theory, but also the connection of new objects with
categories and principles of metaphysical reflection.