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Interpreting and Understanding Simulations: The Philosophy of Social Simulation

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Simulating Social Complexity

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

    R. Keith Sawyer

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  1. R. Keith Sawyer
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Correspondence to R. Keith Sawyer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CPM - Centre for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, M1 3GH, United Kingdom

    Bruce Edmonds

  2. , Center for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, Aytoun Street, Manchester, M1 3GH, United Kingdom

    Ruth Meyer

Further Reading

Further Reading

(Bechtel and Richardson 1993) provides a discussion of a range of philosophical issues related to the likely success of reductionist strategies in understanding and explaining complex systems, inspired by connectionist accounts of cognition, but relevant to complex systems at any level of analysis. (Hedström 2005) makes a strong case for reductionist explanation of social systems, using mechanistic explanation and specifically, multi-agent based simulation in connection with empirical study.

For an examination of the philosophical accounts of mechanistic explanation and theories of emergence in sociology and philosophy see (Sawyer 2004). For an extensive review of historical and contemporary theories of emergence in the social sciences, primarily psychology and sociology see (Sawyer 2005). This advocates that sociology should be the science of social emergence. (Conte et al. 2001) is a discussion between four different viewpoints specifically as they concern social simulation.

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Sawyer, R.K. (2013). Interpreting and Understanding Simulations: The Philosophy of Social Simulation. In: Edmonds, B., Meyer, R. (eds) Simulating Social Complexity. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-93813-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-93813-2_12

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