抄録
The science of chaos, as a new breed of science, has many features which are not common among modern studies in science. Its subject, chaos, has no clear definition, but its mathematical 'paradigms', i.e. some nonlinear equations, whose solutions share unique intricate patterns, seem to be in many ways revealing hitherto unexpected aspects both of the world and of many researches into it. It is examined in this paper what constitutes the ontological status of mathematical models which would be necessary for the unconditional acceptance of these aspects as genuine ones. The likely physical meaning of nonlinearity, and what it might enable one to explain are also envisaged.
