Abstract
What is the best method for doing simulation research? This has been the basis of a continuing debate within the social science research community. Resolving it is important if the community is to demonstrate clearly that simulation is an effective method for research in the social sciences. In this paper, we tackle the question from a historical and philosophical perspective. We argue that the debate within social simulation has many connections with the debates that have echoed down the years within the wider social science community about the character of social science knowledge and the appropriate epistemological and methodological assumptions on which social science research should rest. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009.