Abstract:I present a novel approach to the recent scholarly debate that has arisen with respect to the philosophical import one should infer from scientific accounts of "Phase Transitions," by appealing to a distinction between "representation" understood as "denotation," and "faithful representation" understood as a type of "guide to ontology." It is argued that the entire debate of phase transitions is misguided for it stems from a pseudo-paradox that does not license the type of claims made by scholars, and that what is really interesting about phase transition is the manner by which they force us to rethink issues regarding scientific representation.
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