Frey, Daniel and Šešelja, Dunja (2018) What Is the Epistemic Function of Highly Idealized Agent-Based Models of Scientific Inquiry? Philosophy of the Social Sciences.
|
Text
Frey_Seselja_PSS_preprint.pdf Download (557kB) | Preview |
Abstract
In this paper we examine the epistemic value of highly idealized agent-based models (ABMs) of social aspects of scientific inquiry. On the one hand, we argue that taking the results of such simulations as informative of actual scientific inquiry is unwarranted, at least for the class of models proposed in recent literature. Moreover, we argue that a weaker approach, which takes these models as providing only “how-possibly” explanations, does not help to improve their epistemic value. On the other hand, we suggest that if ABMs of science underwent two types of robustness analysis, they could indeed have a clear epistemic function, namely by providing evidence for philosophical and historical hypotheses. In this sense, ABMs can obtain evidential and explanatory properties and thus be a useful tool for integrated history and philosophy of science. We illustrate our point with an example of a model—building on the work by Kevin Zollman—which we apply to a concrete historical case study.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
|||||||||
| Keywords: | agent-based models, robustness analysis, how-possibly explanations, scientific interaction, integrated history and philosophy of science | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Explanation General Issues > History of Science Case Studies General Issues > Models and Idealization |
|||||||||
| Depositing User: | Dr. Dunja Šešelja | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 28 May 2018 18:45 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 28 May 2018 18:45 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 14715 | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Philosophy of the Social Sciences | |||||||||
| Publisher: | Sage Journals | |||||||||
| Official URL: | https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393118767085 | |||||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.1177/0048393118767085 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Explanation General Issues > History of Science Case Studies General Issues > Models and Idealization |
|||||||||
| Date: | 2018 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/14715 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Altmetric.com
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}