Demetris Portides
University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Spring 2007

Demetris is currently teaching Philosophy of Science and Logic at the University of Cyprus. He is interested in how we could sufficiently explicate the ways by which our scientific theories relate to their target systems. In particular he focuses on work that aims to explicate the notion of ‘scientific model’ as a vehicle of scientific representation of phenomena. His understanding of this goal is that it must be broken up into three components.

The first should involve the explication of the notion of ‘model’, the second the explication of the notion of ‘representation’, and the third the explication of the process(es) by which models are turned into representations of target physical systems. While at the Center, Demetris will work on the third of these components. He will try to articulate a theory of idealization/de-idealization (as he calls it), which hopefully will be an adequate explication of how the representational capacity of scientific models is achieved.

Demetris enjoys music and theatre and is already taking advantage of what Pittsburgh has to offer on this. He also loves playing football (soccer, that is). But although the intensity of these passions vary depending on other things occurring in life, one remains constant since the age of 5 –when he started out as an ‘apprentice’ to his grandfather– he is a passionate wine-maker, who has never yielded to his numerous failures and continues to believe that one day he will produce one unquestionably excellent barrel of wine.

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