Growing artificial societies: social science from the bottom up
Growing artificial societies: social science from the bottom up
Swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems
Swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems
Putting social sciences together again: an introduction to the volume
Dynamics in human and primate societies
Putting social sciences together again: an introduction to the volume
Dynamics in human and primate societies
A century of controversy over the foundations of mathematics
Complexity - Limits in mathematics and physics
Swarm intelligence
Simulation for the Social Scientist
Simulation for the Social Scientist
On the Limits of Bottom-Up Computer Simulation: Towards a Nonlinear Modeling Culture
HICSS '03 Proceedings of the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'03) - Track 3 - Volume 3
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This article investigates the notion of emergence in Artificial Societies. Roughly, two competing approaches to the foundations of social science exist: A micro foundation of social theory on the one hand and a notion of an emergent holistic social theory on the other. This dichotomy re-appears also in Artificial Societies. It will be argued that philosophical decisions made on the methodological level of how to interpret the concept of emergence will result in different sociological theories. This will be demonstrated by re-examining considerations on emergence undertaken by Joshua Epstein, who argues for a micro foundation of social theory. These considerations are then settled in the context of the long-lasting debates about emergence in sociology and philosophy of science. Considerations from the complexity theory and Philosophy of Science will be utilised to develop a concept of emergence which leads to the notion of an autonomous social sphere. It is demonstrated by two examples that this concept can be applied to Artificial Societies.