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

Eckhart Arnold

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.

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