ABSTRACT
As Cohen suggests (1960a: 82), the formulation of theories in terms of computer models provides opportunities to work with formal models to scholars that are not mathematicians. To be more precise on this point, computer modeling and simulation support researchers in two ways. First, they allow inferring deductions from modeled assumptions when these assumptions are not treatable by means of mathematical analysis. Thus, computer modeling and simulation allow investigators to preserve richness, and complexity, in the portrayal of social processes. For example, when working with a computer model, a researcher can escape the pressures to linearize functional forms that impinge on modeling when an analytical solution is necessary.
