Abstract
The highly dynamic development of simulation technologies is propelled by the expectation that increasingly high-performing forecasting instruments can and will be employed. In current discussions, reference to “high-performing forecasting instruments” combines two perspectives that stand in an unresolved relationship to one another, which is philosophically revealing: forecasts as true, as in adequate, representations versus performance measured by the success of the technical practice. While the first perspective presupposes a theory of truth based on realism (adequate representations), the second orients itself towards pragmatic representations of truth. Once this is made explicit, a shortcoming in the existing philosophy of simulation becomes evident. An intense debate on the verification and validation of simulations has failed to address the theory of truth. This article undertakes a discussion on a theory of truth suitable for computer simulation that is not only based on a theoretical interest, but also on a practical one.
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Notes
- 1.
This includes intentional retrodictions in the history of nature or culture.
- 2.
Also, discussions concerning whether new problems of validation and verifications exist take place without specifying the scope within the theory of truth. (Cf. Winsberg 2010, pp. 32–38).
- 3.
This doesn’t mean that there are no background assumptions based on a theory of truth, but that these are not made explicit and are therefore more comprehensible in terms of their limitations and consequences.
- 4.
Which means that not all toy simulations are accounted for pragmatically.
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Hubig, C., Kaminski, A. (2017). Outlines of a Pragmatic Theory of Truth and Error in Computer Simulation. In: Resch, M., Kaminski, A., Gehring, P. (eds) The Science and Art of Simulation I . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55762-5_9
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