Simulation models of complex social systems a constructivist and expressivist interpretation of system dynamics

Margarita Vazquez

Manuel Liz

pp. 563-582

in: Lorenzo Magnani (ed), Model-based reasoning in science and technology, Berlin, Springer, 2014

Abstract

We take the case of System Dynamics building of computer simulation models as paradigmatic of the activity of modeling and simulation of complex social systems. We analyze the most important features of System Dynamics suggesting a constructivist and expressivist interpretation derived from the proposals of John Searle and Robert Brandom. Three problems are especially addressed: (1) The ontological problem of realism concerning the structures postulated in the models, (2) the epistemological problem of the explanatory power of the models, and (3) the methodological charge of producing merely a kind of "patchwork" through the construction of the models. We argue that a certain combination of Searle's constructivism and of Brandom's expressivism offers very promising ways of interpreting both the sort of reality that something like System Dynamics modeling is trying to capture and the sort of peculiar explanations that System Dynamics models intend to offer. Our approach has interesting consequences regarding scientific and technological disciplines devoted to the analysis of systems that, like complex social systems, are "intentionally construed" by us. Also, it is relevant regarding any development in science and technology involving the use of simulation models as a way of making "explicit" what is only "implicit" in certain actions or certain expert knowledge. There are also many open problems connected with our approach. We discuss some of them at the end of the paper.

Cited authors

Searle John

Brandom Robert