ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a computer program simulating the self-reproducing processes of perception and decision of the superpowers in the early Cold War. The program has two parts: a general multiagent social interaction model and a historical data base describing some of the superpowers' subjective concepts and material conditions of the early Cold War. Rationalists freely acknowledge that persons and groups have distinctive forms of thought. Rationalists have cited the "as if" criterion in rejecting the criticism that their assumptions about cognitive processes are unrealistic. Rational choice theories often classify possible actions according to categories that refer to actors' intentions. The reliability of positivist schemes of classifying intentional action is of great importance to rationalist claims of scientific accuracy. Descriptions of actions and acts are distinguishable objects in historical discourses. Action-descriptions are those referring to behaviors unique in time and history, whereas act-descriptions refer to repeatable instances of behavior categories. Act-categories are evaluative, motivating, and socially reflective.
