Who's afraid of determinism? The ambivalence of macro-historical inquiry

Journal of the Philosophy of History 1 (3):346-364 (2007)
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Abstract

This paper explores explanatory practices of macro-historical social science in light of philosophical stances on determinism versus indeterminism. Analysis of determinism and its implications show its compatibility with practices emphasizing causal complexity, contingency, and choice. It can, moreover, clarify and contain these practices in ways that extend the priority traditionally given to causal explanation by macro-historical social scientists. Analysis of indeterminism shows, by contrast, that each of its major varieties challenge macro-historical explanatory practices. To embrace indeterminism and follow through its implications would, in effect, terminate the tradition of macro-historical inquiry as pursued by American sociologists and political scientists

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Citations of this work

Contingentism for historians.Jeroen Bouterse - 2022 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 96 (C):27-34.

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References found in this work

Path dependence in historical sociology.James Mahoney - 2000 - Theory and Society 29 (4):507-548.
Explaining large-scale historical change.Daniel Little - 2000 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 30 (1):89-112.

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