Tools or Toys?
On Specific Challenges for Modeling and the Epistemology of Models in the Social Sciences

Eckhart Arnold

Table of Contents

1 Introduction

2 The role of models in science

3 Why computer simulations are merely models and not experiments

4 The epistemology of simulations at work: How simulations are used to study chemical reactions in the ribosome

5 How do models explain in the social sciences?

6 Common obstacles for modeling in the social sciences

7 Conclusions

7.1 Consequences for modellers in the social sciences

7.2 Consequences for philosophers of science

Bibliography

7 Conclusions

There are two kinds of conclusions that can be drawn from the previous considerations: Conclusions that directly concern modelers in the social sciences and conclusions that concern philosophers of science that seek to understand and reconstruct the modeling practice of the social scientists.

Tools or Toys? On Specific Challenges for Modeling and the Epistemology of Models in the Social Sciences

7 Conclusions

Tools or Toys?
On Specific Challenges for Modeling and the Epistemology of Models in the Social Sciences