ABSTRACT
Computational models are a good thing, or so most of us believe. But, what are they actually good for, and how do they help us develop better theories? Here I assume that even if there is somebody out there who doesn’t think that models are a good thing, we all think that theories are fundamental to any scientific enterprise. Although consideration of the nature of scientific theories is a big enough topic to occupy the entire academic career of a sizeable proportion of the planet’s philosophers, I will focus on what I consider to be the central component of a scientific theory: To provide an explanation of some phenomena, observation, or set of data. That is, to explain how and why something happens.
