“Colligation”, a term first introduced in philosophy of science by William Whewell (1840), today sparks a renewed interest beyond Whewell scholarship. In this paper, we argue that adopting the notion of colligation in current debates in philosophy of science can contribute to our understanding of scientific models. Specifically, studying colligation allows us to have a better grasp of how integrating diverse model components (empirical data, theory, useful idealization, visual and other representational resources) in a creative way may produce novel generalizations about the phenomenon investigated. Our argument is built both on the theoretical appraisal of Whewell’s philosophy of science and the historical rehabilitation of his scientific work on tides. Adopting a philosophy of science in practice perspective, we show how colligation emerged from Whewell’s empirical work on tides. The production of idealized maps (“cotidal maps”) illustrates the unifying and creative power of the activity of colligating in scientific practice. We show the importance of colligation in modelling practices more generally by looking at its epistemic role in the construction of the San Francisco Bay Model.

“Colligation”是威廉·惠威尔（William Whewell，1840 年）首次在科学哲学中引入的术语，如今在惠威尔的学术研究之外引发了新的兴趣。在本文中，我们认为在当前的科学哲学辩论中采用拼合的概念有助于我们对科学模型的理解。具体来说，研究拼写使我们能够更好地了解如何以创造性的方式整合不同的模型组件（经验数据、理论、有用的理想化、视觉和其他代表性资源）可以产生关于所研究现象的新颖概括。我们的论点建立在对 Whewell 科学哲学的理论评价和他关于潮汐的科学工作的历史复原之上。在实践中采用科学哲学，我们展示了拼贴是如何从 Whewell 的潮汐经验工作中产生的。理想化地图（“潮汐地图”）的制作说明了科学实践中拼凑活动的统一性和创造性力量。我们通过研究其在旧金山湾模型构建中的认知作用，更广泛地展示了拼贴在建模实践中的重要性。