ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the theory of holistic simulation—a version of simulation theory—as a new and promising account of how we understand human behavior, demonstrating that there is something special about interpreting humans. According to simulation theory, the process of interpreting other people's behavior rests neither on the application of a theory nor on rationality. Situative simulation, because we examine only the simulatee's situation without paying attention to particular, especially deviant personal traits; total projection because the chapter project without any adjustments. Holism is important in this context because the process of simulation is not restricted to the empathetic method. The chapter argues that there is no absolutely privileged method for the social sciences—pace interpretivism—and furthermore, that the distinction between social and natural sciences is blurred, even if—pace postempiricism—simulation based on the empathetic method is fundamental. Simulationism, however, does not reinvoke the old distinction between natural and social sciences.
