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Simulating Simple Societies

In: Limits of Economic and Social Knowledge

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  • Stephen J. DeCanio

    (University of California)

Abstract

Just as the realization that human systems and sufficiently rich deterministic systems cannot be scientifically/empirically distinguished has consequences for what we can aspire to understand about individual behavior, this insight has implications for how we approach the study of human society. Like formal axiomatic systems, human behavior and human societies will exhibit both regularities and regions that are epis-temologically inaccessible. At the same time, simple computational systems can and do exhibit the kinds of regularities that one ordinarily associates with conscious design or law-like behavior. Computational routines are capable of illustrating the tension between predictable order and unpredictability that must permeate social science.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen J. DeCanio, 2014. "Simulating Simple Societies," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Limits of Economic and Social Knowledge, chapter 3, pages 33-102, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-37193-5_3
    DOI: 10.1057/9781137371935_3
    as

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