Modelling in Natural Sciences

There are three rudiments to the art of modelling: intuition, a sound theoretical background and experience. Intuition is beyond the reach of any teaching. Experience may to some extent be substituted by studying existing models. Initially, the foundations for the theoretic background needed in modelling must be laid down. This book defines the wide application of the term. The basic concepts are imaging processes and the fine structure of mappings. The main emphasis is on the imaging of dynamic processes which are analysed and subdivided into their atomic constituents by means of systems analysis. The cyclic structure and the stages of models' set-up are explained. The evaluation of a model's quality is regarded as a stochastic process. The aspects of grade used in different fields of sciences are brought into perspective. Thus, a quantitative concept of validity on the basis of conditional degrees of rational belief can be developed.