On money dependence realtions systems

The present research project aims the investigation of the socio-cognitive fundament of money by the means of formal simulation. Hitherto no study has presented an explicit model on the socio-cognitive function and significance of money in our society. Money as a medium of exchange allows for the trade of market participants who do not need to know each other but the value of money and the value of goods. The socio-cognitive peculiarity of such a trading system will be investigated in the present work against the background of barter trade. The theoretical base for the socio-cognitive modelling of the agents will be provided by Castelfranchi`s theory of social dependence (1991, 1992, 1995, 1996). By the means of a multi agent systems (MAS) formal simulation approach semi-autonomous agents will be modelled for two different types of economies: the barter economy and the monetary economy. MAS do consist of a number of semi-autonomous agents, which do achieve each of their goals easier in collaboration than individually. Due to the dynamic of MAS it is already with agents which are endowed with rather simple strategies possible to model self-organizing systems. In a first step agents will be modelled such way that they are able to cope with the socio-cognitive request of barter trade in small systems. By the means of a gradual increase of the number of agents a more and more complex system will be created, to observe when and due to what factors the trade will collapse or even manifest the emergence of a new order. In a second step a means of exchange will be introduced in the trade system and the agents will be designed to be able to trade with it. Analogously to the barter system the number of agents will be varied to study the development of the market. The pivotal questions which will be addressed in this approach concern on one hand the problematic notion of value in economic theory, and on the other hand the sociological and social psychological problem of the emergence of social institutions (such as money). The latter should provide above all new insights into the significance of social institutions for man`s social actions. The preliminary thesis of the project as follows: Social institutions function is the de-socialization of social action. In this respect social institutions are a catalyst of social complexity.