scholarly journals Reconsidering Social Dynamics: Fundamentality and Social Simulations

Author(s):  
Ioannis Katerelos ◽  
Charalambos Tsekeris

We live in a ceaselessly changing and inescapably dynamic social world. Given the inherent unpredictability of human complex systems, this brief article seeks to show that agent-based social simulations can possibly approach the ideal of a fundamental law of social dynamics, including all forms or processes of social dynamics, articulated with everyday life and action, individual or collective. This ultimately tends to recover the explanatory potential of social networks and offer an efficient research basis for the creative re-conceptualization of social dynamics.

Author(s):  
Ioannis Katerelos ◽  
Charalambos Tsekeris

We live in a ceaselessly changing and inescapably dynamic social world. Given the inherent unpredictability of human complex systems, this brief article seeks to show that agent-based social simulations can possibly approach the ideal of a fundamental law of social dynamics, including all forms or processes of social dynamics, articulated with everyday life and action, individual or collective. This ultimately tends to recover the explanatory potential of social networks and offer an efficient research basis for the creative re-conceptualization of social dynamics.


Author(s):  
C. Bisconti ◽  
A. Corallo ◽  
M. De Maggio ◽  
F. Grippa ◽  
S. Totaro

This research aims to apply models extracted from the many-body quantum mechanics to describe social dynamics. It is intended to draw macroscopic characteristics of organizational communities starting from the analysis of microscopic interactions with respect to the node model. In this chapter, the authors intend to give an answer to the following question: which models of the quantum physics are suitable to represent the behaviour and the evolution of business processes? The innovative aspects of the project are related to the application of models and methods of the quantum mechanics to social systems. In order to validate the proposed mathematical model, the authors intend to define an open-source platform able to model nodes and interactions within a network, to visualize the macroscopic results through a digital representation of the social networks.


2014 ◽  
pp. 909-921
Author(s):  
C. Bisconti ◽  
A. Corallo ◽  
M. De Maggio ◽  
F. Grippa ◽  
S. Totaro

This research aims to apply models extracted from the many-body quantum mechanics to describe social dynamics. It is intended to draw macroscopic characteristics of organizational communities starting from the analysis of microscopic interactions with respect to the node model. In this chapter, the authors intend to give an answer to the following question: which models of the quantum physics are suitable to represent the behaviour and the evolution of business processes? The innovative aspects of the project are related to the application of models and methods of the quantum mechanics to social systems. In order to validate the proposed mathematical model, the authors intend to define an open-source platform able to model nodes and interactions within a network, to visualize the macroscopic results through a digital representation of the social networks.


Author(s):  
Paul Humphreys

Paul Humphreys pioneered philosophical investigations into the methodological revolution begun by computer simulations. He has also made important contributions to the contemporary literature on emergence by developing the fusion account of diachronic emergence and its generalization, transformational emergence. He is the discoverer of what has come to be called “Humphreys” Paradox in probability theory and has also made influential contributions to the literature on probabilistic causality and scientific explanation. This collection contains fourteen of his previously published papers on topics ranging from numerical experiments to the status of scientific metaphysics. There is also and a previously unpublished paper on social dynamics. The volume is divided into four parts on, respectively, computational science, emergence, probability, and general philosophy of science. The first part contains the seminal 1990 paper on computer simulations, with three other papers arguing that these new methods cannot be accounted for by traditional methodological approaches. The second part contains the original presentation of fusion emergence and three companion papers arguing for diachronic approaches to the topic, rather than the then dominant synchronic accounts. The third part starts with the paper that introduced the probabilistic paradox followed by a later evaluation of attempts to solve it. A third paper argues, contra Quine, that probability theory is a purely mathematical theory. The final part includes papers on causation, explanation, metaphysics, and an agent-based model that shows how endogenous uncertainty undermines utility maximization. Each of the four parts is followed by a comprehensive postscript with retrospective assessments.


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