Rafael Bordini wrote:
>
>The problem I see with "actor" is that this word is exclusively
>related to people who act in plays, films, etc. And you certainly
>don't mean that the agents in your social simulations are just
>acting, so that when they are off the simulation they are different
>"agents", i.e., have different goals, personalities, etc. and are
>only then being true to themselves! :-))) Actually, I think it would
>be great to create "acting agents" in this sense.
>
In sociology/anthropology the term actor gained wide usage in the 70s in
recognition that action arises from particular social and/or cultural
contexts. So actors do have different goals/objects/ways of acting
according to context. In sociological/anthropological terms, even an agent
would be an actor. Of course one of the enduring problems in social science
is that unlike the natural sciences (where there is a strong tendency for
the standardization of terms), practitioners are free to invent new uses
for words without reference to common usage or prevailing patterns of use
in other areas. And even, for example, to suggest that actors only appear
in plays :-)
Alan
____________________________________________________________________________
Alan Dean Ph.D.
Sociology and Anthropology
School of Comparative and Applied Social Sciences
The University of Hull
Hull
HU6 7RX
UK
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