The following quote is a match for my argument that by refusing to accept the task of establishing an underlying theory, a metamodel or ontology, of "integrated" models, efforts such as the HarmonIT project severely limit their long term value.
Find a scientific man who proposes to get along without any metaphysics -- not by any means every man who holds the ordinary reasonings of metaphysicians in scorn -- and you have found one whose doctrines are thoroughly vitiated by the crude and uncriticized meta physics with which they are packed. We must philosophize, said the great naturalist Aristotle* -- if only to avoid philosophizing. Every man of us has a metaphysics, and has to have one; and it will influence his life greatly. Far better, then, that that metaphysics should be criticized and not be allowed to run loose.
Every simulation code, every modelling system and tool, unavoidably embeds a set of assumptions about the nature of models and of the modelled systems. These inevitably vary to a greater or lesser degree between such systems. Blind coupling leads inevitably towards increasing inconsistency, with all of the cognitive load and risk implied by that.
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