What is a Simulation Model?

Abstract

Many philosophical accounts of scientific models fail to distinguish between a simulation model and other forms of models. This failure is unfortunate because there are important differences pertaining to their methodology and epistemology that favor their philosophical understanding. The core claim presented here is that simulation models are rich and complex units of analysis in their own right, that they depart from known forms of scientific models in significant ways, and that a proper understanding of the type of model simulations are fundamental for their philosophical assessment. I argue that simulation models can be distinguished from other forms of models by the many algorithmic structures, representation relations, and new semantic connections involved in their architecture. In this article, I reconstruct a general architecture for a simulation model, one that faithfully captures the complexities involved in most scientific research with computer simulations. Furthermore, I submit that a new methodology capable of conforming such architecture into a fully functional, computationally tractable computer simulation must be in place. I discuss this methodology-what I call recasting-and argue for its philosophical novelty. If these efforts are heading towards the right interpretation of simulation models, then one can show that computer simulations shed new light on the philosophy of science. To illustrate the potential of my interpretation of simulation models, I briefly discuss simulation-based explanations as a novel approach to questions about scientific explanation.

Two Dimensions of Opacity and the Deep Learning Predicament

“…Analyses of the modeling steps involved in devising a CS of this general type are now fairly common, and found, in varying detail and explicitness, in e.g. Winsberg (1999Winsberg ( , 2010, Humphreys (2004), Beisbart (2012), Hasse and Lenhard (2017), Boge (2019b), or Durán (2020).…”

“…E.g Boge (2019a). orDurán (2017Durán ( , 2020 for recent accounts of how this is possible. Note that no specific notion of explanation is presupposed here;Boge (2019a) discusses examples wherein a deductivenomological and a functional explanation are being inferred from CSs, respectively.18 In fact, depending on the agent in question, h-opacity may concern all three forms of transparency in complex computational systems identified by Creel (2020), i.e., "functional transparency, or knowledge of the algorithmic functioning of the whole[;] structural transparency, or knowledge of how the algorithm was realized[...]; and [...] run transparency, or knowledge of the program as it was actually run in a particular instance, including the hardware and input data used[...]."…”

Survey on test case generation, selection and prioritization for cyber‐physical systems

“…Simulation models are models on which computer simulations are based [40]. A simulation is the action of performing a test on a model [41], usually a software model.…”

The Technology Development and Management of Smart Manufacturing System: A Review On Theoretical and Technological Perspectives

“…Simulation is a programming model based on the mathematical equation that is designed to imitate a real system when the analytical model does not work (Durán, 2020). Simulation is used to predict the performance characteristics of a production system to underline their productivity levels and assess new management solutions within a short time (Bevilacqua et al, 2013).…”