Forms Of Explanation
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Forms of Explanation
Author | : Alan Garfinkel |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 186 |
Release | : 1981 |
Genre | : Social Science |
ISBN | : 9780300049022 |
What makes one explanation better than another? How can we tell when an explanation has really answered our question? In a lively and readable discussion, Garfinkel argues that the key to understanding an explanation is to discover what question is really being answered. He then suggests criteria for a good explanation and goes on to examine some classic explanations in social and natural science.
Varieties Of Social Explanation
Author | : Daniel Little |
Publisher | : Westview Press |
Total Pages | : 294 |
Release | : 1991 |
Genre | : Philosophy |
ISBN | : |
Professor Little presents an introduction to the philosophy of social science with an emphasis on the central forms of explanation in social science: rational-intentional, causal, functional, structural, materialist, statistical and interpretive. The book is very strong on recent developments, particularly in its treatment of rational choice theory, microfoundations for social explanation, the idea of supervenience, functionalism, and current discussions of relativism.Of special interest is Professor Little's insight that, like the philosophy of natural science, the philosophy of social science can profit from examining actual scientific examples. Throughout the book, philosophical theory is integrated with recent empirical work on both agrarian and industrial society drawn from political science, sociology, geography, anthropology, and economics.Clearly written and well structured, this text provides the logical and conceptual tools necessary for dealing with the debates at the cutting edge of contemporary philosophy of social science. It will prove indispensible for philosophers, social scientists and their students.
Understanding, Explanation, and Scientific Knowledge
Author | : Kareem Khalifa |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 265 |
Release | : 2017-10-05 |
Genre | : Philosophy |
ISBN | : 1107195632 |
The first comprehensive exploration of the nature and value of understanding, addressing burgeoning debates in epistemology and philosophy of science.
Explaining Explanation
Author | : David-Hillel Ruben |
Publisher | : Routledge |
Total Pages | : 281 |
Release | : 2015-12-03 |
Genre | : Social Science |
ISBN | : 1317259912 |
This second edition of David-Hillel Ruben's influential and highly acclaimed book on the philosophy of explanation has been revised and expanded, and the author has made substantial changes in light of the extensive reviews the first edition received. Ruben's views on the place of laws in explanation has been refined and clarified. What is perhaps the central thesis of the book, his realist view of explanation, describing the way in which explanation depends on metaphysics, has been updated and extended and engages with some of the work in this area published since the book's first edition.
Explanation and Understanding in the Human Sciences
Author | : Gurpreet Mahajan |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press, USA |
Total Pages | : 176 |
Release | : 1997 |
Genre | : Philosophy |
ISBN | : |
Which form of explanation is adequate for the humans sciences? Mahajan argues that social reality can be perceived in different ways--hermeneutic understanding, narrative, reason action and causal explanation--and each alters our perception of reality. A new chapter on poststructuralist and postmodern theories brings this important book up-to-date with current thinking.
Principles of Methodology
Author | : Perri 6 |
Publisher | : SAGE |
Total Pages | : 338 |
Release | : 2011-10-17 |
Genre | : Social Science |
ISBN | : 1446291634 |
This book provides a comprehensive, accessible guide to social science methodology. In so doing, it establishes methodology as distinct from both methods and philosophy. Most existing textbooks deal with methods, or sound ways of collecting and analysing data to generate findings. In contrast, this innovative book shows how an understanding of methodology allows us to design research so that findings can be used to answer interesting research questions and to build and test theories. Most important things in social research (e.g., beliefs, institutions, interests, practices and social classes) cannot be observed directly. This book explains how empirical research can nevertheless be designed to make sound inferences about their nature, effects and significance. The authors examine what counts as good description, explanation and interpretation, and how they can be achieved by striking intelligent trade-offs between competing design virtues. Coverage includes: • why methodology matters; • what philosophical arguments show us about inference; • competing virtues of good research design; • purposes of theory, models and frameworks; • forming researchable concepts and typologies; • explaining and interpreting: inferring causation, meaning and significance; and • combining explanation and interpretation. The book is essential reading for new researchers faced with the practical challenge of designing research. Extensive examples and exercises are provided, based on the authors′ long experience of teaching methodology to multi-disciplinary groups. Perri 6 is Professor of Social Policy in the Graduate School in the College of Business, Law and Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University. Chris Bellamy is Emeritus Professor of Public Administration in the Graduate School, Nottingham Trent University.
Explanation in Action Theory and Historiography
Author | : Gunnar Schumann |
Publisher | : Routledge |
Total Pages | : 267 |
Release | : 2019-05-29 |
Genre | : Philosophy |
ISBN | : 0429000650 |
Is the appropriate form of human action explanation causal or rather teleological? While this is a central question in analytic philosophy of action, it also has implications for questions about the differences between methods of explanation in the sciences on the one hand and in the humanities and the social sciences on the other. Additionally, this question bears on the problem of the appropriate form of explanations of past human actions, and therefore it is prominently discussed by analytic philosophers of historiography. This volume brings together causalists and anti-causalists to address enduring philosophical questions at the heart of this debate, as well as their implications for the practice of historiography. Part I considers the quarrel between causalism and anti-causalism in recent developments in the philosophy of action. Part II presents papers by causalists and anti-causalists that are more narrowly focused on the philosophy of historiography.
Explaining Explanation
Author | : David-Hillel Ruben |
Publisher | : Routledge |
Total Pages | : 259 |
Release | : 2015-12-03 |
Genre | : Social Science |
ISBN | : 1317259920 |
This second edition of David-Hillel Ruben's influential and highly acclaimed book on the philosophy of explanation has been revised and expanded, and the author has made substantial changes in light of the extensive reviews the first edition received. Ruben's views on the place of laws in explanation has been refined and clarified. What is perhaps the central thesis of the book, his realist view of explanation, describing the way in which explanation depends on metaphysics, has been updated and extended and engages with some of the work in this area published since the book's first edition.
Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation
Author | : Dennis Dieks |
Publisher | : Springer Science & Business Media |
Total Pages | : 525 |
Release | : 2011-03-24 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 9400711808 |
This volume, the second in the Springer series Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, contains selected papers from the workshops organised by the ESF Research Networking Programme PSE (The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective) in 2009. Five general topics are addressed: 1. Formal Methods in the Philosophy of Science; 2. Philosophy of the Natural and Life Sciences; 3. Philosophy of the Cultural and Social Sciences; 4. Philosophy of the Physical Sciences; 5. History of the Philosophy of Science. This volume is accordingly divided in five sections, each section containing papers coming from the meetings focussing on one of these five themes. However, these sections are not completely independent and detached from each other. For example, an important connecting thread running through a substantial number of papers in this volume is the concept of probability: probability plays a central role in present-day discussions in formal epistemology, in the philosophy of the physical sciences, and in general methodological debates---it is central in discussions concerning explanation, prediction and confirmation. The volume thus also attempts to represent the intellectual exchange between the various fields in the philosophy of science that was central in the ESF workshops.