Goals shape means: a pluralist response to the problem of formal representation in ontic structural realism

The aim of the paper is to assess relative merits two formal representations structure, namely, set theory and category theory. purpose articulate ontic structural realism (OSR). In turn, this will facilitate a discussion on strengths weaknesses both concepts, lead proposal for pragmatics-based approach question choice an appropriate framework. First, we present case study from contemporary science—a comparison formulation quantum mechanics in language Hilbert spaces abstract $$C^\star $$ -algebras. It then shown how method representation can be determined based pragmatics goal-oriented research, not dogmatic choice. We investigate hypothesis stating that use interplay between powers abstraction detail different representational methods results adopting pluralistic, as opposed standard, unificatory, perspective role OSR.