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Experimenting on Theories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Deborah Dowling
Deborah Dowling
Affiliation:
Department of History and Philosophy of Science University of Melbourne
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Abstract

This paper sets out a framework for understanding how the scientific community constructs computer simulation as an epistemically and pragmatically useful methodology. The framework is based on comparisons between simulation and the loosely-defined categories of “theoretical work” and “experimental work.” Within that framework, the epistemological adequacy of simulation arises from its role as a mathematical manipulation of a complex, abstract theoretical model. To establish that adequacy demands a detailed “theoretical” grasp of the internal structure of the computer program. Simultaneously, the pragmatic usefulness of simulation arises from its role as a “virtual laboratory.” That role is made possible by black-boxing the internal structure of the program, such that the scientist can interact with the computer in an intuitive, “experimental” manner. Thus simulation is rendered authoritative, opening up encoded theories to a novel, “experimental” type of manipulation.

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Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , Summer 1999 , pp. 261 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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