Simulacra and Simulation

Simulacra and Simulation

Author: Jean Baudrillard

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 9780472065219

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Develops a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure. This book represents an effort to rethink cultural theory from the perspective of a concept of cultural materialism, one that radically redefines postmodern formulations of the body.


Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy

Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy

Author: Manuel DeLanda

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-06-27

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1780937997

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First published 10 years ago, Manuel DeLanda's Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy rapidly established itself as a landmark text in contemporary continental thought. DeLanda here draws on the realist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze to the domain of philosophy of science. As well as contemporary philosophical insights, the book also tackles new developments in geometry, complexity theory and chaos theory to bring new insights to our understanding of a scientific knowledge liberated from traditional ideas of essence.


Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

Author: David J. Chalmers

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2022-01-25

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 0393635813

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A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.


Calculated Surprises

Calculated Surprises

Author: Johannes Lenhard

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-02-18

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0190873299

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If all philosophy starts with wondering, then Calculated Surprises starts with wondering about how computers are changing the face and inner workings of science. In this book, Lenhard concentrates on the ways in which computers and simulation are transforming the established conception of mathematical modeling. His core thesis is that simulation modeling constitutes a new mode of mathematical modeling that rearranges and inverts key features of the established conception. Although most of these new key features--such as experimentation, exploration, or epistemic opacity--have their precursors, the new ways in which they are being combined is generating a distinctive style of scientific reasoning. Lenhard also documents how simulation is affecting fundamental concepts of solution, understanding, and validation. He feeds these transformations back into philosophy of science, thereby opening up new perspectives on longstanding oppositions. By combining historical investigations with practical aspects, Calculated Surprises is accessible for a broad audience of readers. Numerous case studies covering a wide range of simulation techniques are balanced with broad reflections on science and technology. Initially, what computers are good at is calculating with a speed and accuracy far beyond human capabilities. Lenhard goes further and investigates the emerging characteristics of computer-based modeling, showing how this simple observation is creating a number of surprising challenges for the methodology and epistemology of science. These calculated surprises will attract both philosophers and scientific practitioners who are interested in reflecting on recent developments in science and technology.


Modelling and Simulation in the Social Sciences from the Philosophy of Science Point of View

Modelling and Simulation in the Social Sciences from the Philosophy of Science Point of View

Author: R. Hegselmann

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9401586861

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Model building in the social sciences can increasingly rely on well elaborated formal theories. At the same time inexpensive large computational capacities are now available. Both make computer-based model building and simulation possible in social science, whose central aim is in particular an understanding of social dynamics. Such social dynamics refer to public opinion formation, partner choice, strategy decisions in social dilemma situations and much more. In the context of such modelling approaches, novel problems in philosophy of science arise which must be analysed - the main aim of this book. Interest in social simulation has recently been growing rapidly world- wide, mainly as a result of the increasing availability of powerful personal computers. The field has also been greatly influenced by developments in cellular automata theory (from mathematics) and in distributed artificial intelligence which provided tools readily applicable to social simulation. This book presents a number of modelling and simulation approaches and their relations to problems in philosophy of science. It addresses sociologists and other social scientists interested in formal modelling, mathematical sociology, and computer simulation as well as computer scientists interested in social science applications, and philosophers of social science.


Simulation and Similarity

Simulation and Similarity

Author: Michael Weisberg

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2013-02-14

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 0199933669

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This book is an account of modeling and idealization in modern scientific practice, focusing on concrete, mathematical, and computational models. The main topics of this book are the nature of models, the practice of modeling, and the nature of the relationship between models and real-world phenomena. In order to elucidate the model/world relationship, Weisberg develops a novel account of similarity called weighted feature matching.


Philosophy and Simulation

Philosophy and Simulation

Author: Manuel DeLanda

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-04-18

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1350096792

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In this groundbreaking book, Manuel DeLanda analyzes different genres of simulation, from cellular automata and generic algorithms to neural nets and multi-agent systems, as a means to conceptualize the space of possibilities associated with casual and other capacities. This remarkably clear philosophical discussion of a rapidly growing field, from a thinker at the forefront of research at the interface of science and the humanities, is a must-read for anyone interested in the philosophies of technology, emergence and science at all levels.


Simulation Theory

Simulation Theory

Author: Tim Short

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2015-01-09

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 131759813X

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Theory of Mind (ToM) is the term used for our ability to predict and explain the behaviour of ourselves and others. Accounts of this theory have so far fallen into two competing types: Simulation Theory and ‘Theory Theory’. In contrast with Theory Theory, Simulation Theory argues that we predict behaviour not by employing a model of people, but by replicating others’ thoughts and feelings. This book presents a novel defence of Simulation Theory, reviewing the major challenges against it and positing the theory as the most effective method for exploring how we know each other and ourselves. Drawing on key research in the field, chapters reopen the debates surrounding Theory of Mind and cover a variety of topics including schizophrenia with implications for experimental social psychology. In the past, one of the greatest criticisms against Simulation Theory is that it cannot explain systematic error in Theory of Mind. This book explores the rapidly developing heuristics and biases programme, pioneered by Kahneman and Tversky, to suggest that a novel bias mismatch defence available to Simulation Theory explains these systematic errors. Simulation Theory: A psychological and philosophical consideration will appeal to a range of researchers and academics, including psychologists from the fields of cognitive, social and developmental psychology, as well as philosophers, psychotherapists and practitioners looking for further research on Theory of Mind. The book will also be of relevance to those interested in autism, since it offers a new approach to Theory of Mind which explains central symptoms in autistic subjects.


Ontology, Epistemology, and Teleology for Modeling and Simulation

Ontology, Epistemology, and Teleology for Modeling and Simulation

Author: Andreas Tolk

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-08-10

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 3642311407

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In this book, internationally recognized experts in philosophy of science, computer science, and modeling and simulation are contributing to the discussion on how ontology, epistemology, and teleology will contribute to enable the next generation of intelligent modeling and simulation applications. It is well understood that a simulation can provide the technical means to display the behavior of a system over time, including following observed trends to predict future possible states, but how reliable and trustworthy are such predictions? The questions about what we can know (ontology), how we gain new knowledge (epistemology), and what we do with this knowledge (teleology) are therefore illuminated from these very different perspectives, as each experts uses a different facet to look at these challenges. The result of bringing these perspectives into one book is a challenging compendium that gives room for a spectrum of challenges: from general philosophy questions, such as can we use modeling and simulation and other computational means at all to discover new knowledge, down to computational methods to improve semantic interoperability between systems or methods addressing how to apply the recent insights of service oriented approaches to support distributed artificial intelligence. As such, this book has been compiled as an entry point to new domains for students, scholars, and practitioners and to raise the curiosity in them to learn more to fully address the topics of ontology, epistemology, and teleology from philosophical, computational, and conceptual viewpoints.