Axiomatisation and Simulation

• Main Author: Klaus G. Troitzsch
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-02-01
• Series: Information
• Subjects: non-statement view; “third way of doing science”; translating simulation models; model verification; gender segregation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/10/2/53

The paper discusses the relation between the “non-statement view„ of the structuralist program in philosophy of science and agent-based simulation and the use of this relation for a deeper understanding of the verification and the validation of simulation models. To this end it uses the history of the gender desegregation process in German schools in the second half of the 20th century and two simulation models trying to explain and understand this historical process. The relation between the two simulation models on one hand and the structuralist reconstruction of the mental and verbal theory of the observed phenomenon is depicted step by step, showing the verification of the more recent simulation model along the lines of the formal definition of this theory. Finally, the simulation model is used to make two unobservable parameters measurable with the help of the formalised theory, which allows new insights into the historical process.