Chris and Patrick D.,  (01)
I responded to this thread earlier this evening, but I
didn't mention the following point, which may help to
clarify the issues:  (02)
 1. Model theory, as Tarski stated in the title of his
 original paper, is intended to define "The concept
 of truth in formalized languages."  (03)
 2. Tarski later waffled on the subject and talked about
 defining truth in general, but it's best to make a
 sharp distinction between an actual physical situation,
 a model of that situation, and a theory stated in
 some formal model.  (04)
 3. Model theory only relates a statement in some formal
 language to a formal model. It does not make any
 claims whatever about the applicability of that model
 to any aspect of physical reality.  (05)
 4. The question of how well a particular model represents
 physical reality is *not* a formal issue that can be
 solved by laying down some formal definitions. It
 involves all the hard work of observing, testing,
 and devising experiments to determine what is real.  (06)
In short, model theory makes no claims about reality.
All the hard work lies in determining how well any
particular model describes reality. And as Patrick D.
said and I agreed, no model has an exact match to
reality.  (07)
John  (08)
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