Modeling and Simulation

Modeling in academic and applied disciplines has many interpretations, often confusing true modeling with simulation and analogy. In this chapter, we focus on extensions of the work of the mathematical biologist Robert Rosen to examine a formal view of whole system analysis and modeling. Rosen (1993) defined modeling as the “judicious association of a formalism with such external referents” (p. 359). By judicious is meant following certain epistemological criteria that ensure good science and help resolve philosophical differences between realist and instrumentalist approaches. While adopting a primarily realist position on modeling (that models describe nature), the modeling framework also represents constructed phenomena (perceptions and agreements about nature). The resolution of these views is found in reifying models themselves in both nature and cognitive processes. Building on the PAR Holon Framework presented in Chapter 2, we describe four kinds of model, each associated with one of the quadrants in the cyclical framework, and a fifth level of meta-modeling associated with the identity cycle of a system (the framework itself). We describe the mathematical basis for relating models in the framework using category theory adapted for this purpose; and we discuss the technical differences between modeling, simulation, and analogy, giving familiar examples and recommending future development. The reader will gain basic tools to apply whole systems analysis and modeling to complex problems.