Speaker
Description
Monte Carlo computer simulations and methods have been widely used in physics for many decades, particularly in data analysis. Despite that, the growing philosophical literature about computer simulations has largely bracketed them. This talk aims to fill in this lacuna. I provide an overview of various Monte Carlo techniques as they are applied in physics, covering Monte Carlo integration, direct, and indirect Monte Carlo simulation. I then provide an epistemological analysis of direct Monte Carlo simulations with a focus on data analysis. It turns out that they don’t entirely fit the idea that simulations trace the development of a system by outputting a series of state descriptions of the system. Furthermore, Monte Carlo simulations raise interesting questions about the meaning of the probabilities involved.
