  This text provides with an introduction to the modern approach of
artificiality and simulation in social sciences. It presents the relationship
between complexity and artificiality, before introducing the field of
artificial societies which greatly benefited from the computer power fast
increase, gifting social sciences with formalization and experimentation tools
previously owned by "hard" sciences alone. It shows that as "a new way of doing
social sciences", artificial societies should undoubtedly contribute to a
renewed approach in the study of sociality and should play a significant part
in the elaboration of original theories of social phenomena.
