A hybrid account of scientific targets

In the modelling literature in philosophy of science, a target is conceived as the part of the world that a model is about. However, little is said about how targets come to be so. In this paper, we present and defend an account of targets in which these are simultaneously scientific and practical objects resulting from a process of reification via identification and forging. We call our account hybrid, insofar as we contend targets have simultaneously a performative and a descriptive character. The former derives from the epistemic complexity involved in their construction, and not from the sociological construction of the target; the latter, from the connection between the target and specific parts of the world. Our account entails that models and their targets are different kinds of functional objects of scientific inquiry. Finally, we illustrate our account by explaining how the concept of Gross Domestic Product became a target of scientific inquiry through a process of reification via identification and forging.