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Les simulations sont-elles des expériences numériques?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2016

JULIE JEBEILE
JULIE JEBEILE*
Affiliation:
Université Paris — Sorbonne (Sciences, normes, décision)
*
†<[email protected]>
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Abstract

Some philosophers see an analogy between simulation and experiment. But, once we acknowledge some similarities between computer simulations and experiments, can we conclude from them that simulations generate empirical knowledge, as experiments do? In this paper, I argue that the similarities between simulation and experiment give the scientist at most the illusion that she is conducting an experiment, but cannot seriously ground the analogy. However, it does not follow that experiments are always epistemologically superior to simulations. I analyze the cases when simulations and experiments equally yield new empirical knowledge.

Certains philosophes ont défendu qu’une analogie existait entre simulations et expériences. Mais, une fois que l’on a reconnu quelques similitudes entre elles, peut-on réellement conclure qu’en vertu de celles-ci les simulations produisent de nouvelles connaissances empiriques comme les expériences? Je soutiens que ces similitudes donnent tout au plus à l’utilisateur d’une simulation l’illusion qu’il a affaire à une expérience, mais ne peuvent fonder sérieusement une analogie entre simulation et expérience. Cependant il ne faudrait pas conclure que l’expérience est épistémologiquement supérieure à la simulation. J’analyse les cas pour lesquels simulation et expérience engendrent également des connaissances nouvelles.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 59 - 86
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Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2016 

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