Useful models must both represent reality and simplify it for specific purposes

Evidence

Every model or map is an abstraction and will be more useful for some purposes than for others. A road map shows us how to drive from A to B, but will not be very useful if we are piloting a plane, in which case we will want a map highlighting airfields, radio beacons, flight paths, and topography. With no map, however, we will be lost. The more detailed a map is the more fully it will reflect reality. An extremely detailed map, however, will not be useful for many purposes. If we wish to get from one big city to another on a major expressway, we do not need and may find confusing a map which includes much information unrelated to automotive transportation and in which the major highways are lost in a complex mass of secondary roads. A map, on the other hand, which had only one expressway on it would eliminate much reality and limit our ability to find alternative routes if the expressway were blocked by a major accident. In short, we need a map that both portrays reality and simplifies reality in a way that best serves our purposes. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 55

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the ‘different reflections of a unified theory’ idea from physics — the single-map problem first noted by Hawking and applied to a world-politics paradigm. — connects to: A model’s own applications can undermine its descriptive accuracy — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 151; Economic models are deliberately simplified representations enabling mathematical reasoning. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 40