Models contribute to our scientific understanding of real-world phenomena. We construct models by idealizing the real world and ignoring or altering some properties. In this sense, an idealized model misrepresents the world. Here the following question arises: how can idealized models provide scientific understanding of the phenomena? In order to answer the question, this article critically examines Strevens’ and Potochnik’s arguments and introduce the notion of intelligibility of a model. Furthermore, this article presents alternative conception of idealization to conventional one, and consider how scientific understanding is achieved by models.

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In this article, I discuss the transition of my thought in the methodology of biology and the reasons for a change of research field to philosophy of biology. First, I argue that biology education in high school or university can trigger the development of a reductionist viewpoint about organisms. I will discuss how the reductionist viewpoint that organisms can be understood by reducing them to molecules and other components, which was formed by my own experience in biology education, changed during my research experience and led to the thought that an anti-reductionist viewpoint is necessary. Through my own research experience in the fields of fisheries science and cell biology, I have changed to the position that not only a reductionist viewpoint but also an anti-reductionist viewpoint is necessary. Although reductionism in biology has been discussed for a long time, the reductionist viewpoint still seems to be dominant in the fields I have experienced. Reductionism and anti-reductionism seem to be in conflict, and how to capture them needs to be studied separately from biology. This requires a viewpoint from the philosophy of biology that captures biology meta-philosophically, which is the reason why I have changed my research field.

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