ABSTRACT
Three different types of lesson may be drawn from the investigation set out in this volume. I will present a quick overview of each in this section. The first type of lesson touches on the methodology of philosophy of science. The second type is historical in nature and concerns the observations and assessments that can be made in connection with the recent history of science and applied science, in particular regarding the consequences of the computerization of the sciences. The third type of lesson is epistemological. It concerns, in particular, the issue of the nature of the knowledge that is produced by the new forms of integrative simulation. My aim is above all to shed what I hope will be new light on the thorny issue of the differences and affinities between knowledge through simulation and empirical knowledge. But I will also explore how a simulation’s epistemic functions are enriched and complexified when the simulation is integrative; the epistemological meaning of the process of remathematizing simulations; and also the equally epistemological consequences of the new interdisciplinarity that is now permitted in contemporary science through the construction of these integrative virtual objects.
