Abstract
This paper begins by showing that sociologists have also struggled with one of the basic conceptual and philosophical problems encountered in simulating societies: the problem of understanding ‘emergence’ and, especially, the relationship between the micro and macro properties of complex systems. Secondly, I shall indicate ways in which some computer simulations may have oversimplified important characteristics of specifically human societies, because the actors (agents) in these societies are capable of, and do routinely reason about the emergent properties of their own societies. This adds a degree of reflexivity to action which is not present (for the most part) in societies made up of simpler agents, and in particular is not a feature of most current computer simulations.
Circumstances make men just as much as men make circumstances. (Marx and Engels 1947, p. 29)
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Gilbert, G.N. (1996). Holism, Individualism and Emergent Properties. In: Hegselmann, R., Mueller, U., Troitzsch, K.G. (eds) Modelling and Simulation in the Social Sciences from the Philosophy of Science Point of View. Theory and Decision Library, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8686-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8686-3_1
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