Explaining with simulation models

Computer simulations are commonly employed when researchers work with analytically intractable or practically unsolvable mathematical modeling equations. In such cases, scientists seem to deal with two different but interrelated kinds of models: a mathematical model and a simulation model. This raises at least two philosophically interesting questions. First, does one or the other model figure centrally in the activity of generating an explanation in such situations? And second, what could an account of explanation involving both mathematical models and simulation models look like? I will argue that, in a large set of cases, the simulation model serves the central role in explanatory discovery. On this basis, I will then present a counterfactual account of simulation model-induced explanation. I claim that on this approach, we often find that the simulation model possesses an explanatory autonomy from its underlying mathematical models and conclude by relating this notion to extant views on the autonomous role of scientific models.