ABSTRACT
Computer simulation is widely taken to be the best, and sometimes the only, tool with which to study highly complex phenomena. However, in many fields, whether simulation models provide the right kind of understanding comparable to that provided by analytic models has been and remains a contentious issue (cf. Galison 1996; Lenhard 2006; Lehtinen and Kuorikoski 2007). Simulation models are often so complex that they, in turn, are difficult to understand, and it is thus worth questioning whether replacing an unintelligible phenomenon with an unintelligible model constitutes epistemic progress. One of the principle aims of science is the creation of scientific understanding and the ability to create understanding is, and should be, an important criterion by which computer simulation techniques are assessed.
