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Models And Games: The Difference Between Explanation And Understanding For Lawyers And Ethicists , Jeffrey M. Lipshaw

Cleveland State Law Review

There is value for lawyers in thinking about constructs of rules as games on one hand, or models on the other. Games are real in a way models are not. Games have "thingness"--an independent reality-and they can be played. Models have "aboutness"-they map onto something else that is real for the sake of simplification and explanation. But models and games are not dichotomous as the preceding claim makes them out to be. Sometimes models look just like games, and sometimes games can serve as models. Because models look like games, we may come to believe they are real-that the models …