Explanation in the Social Sciences: Singular Explanation and the Social Sciences

Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 27:95-117 (1990)
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Abstract

Are explanations in the social sciences fundamentally different from explanations in the natural sciences? Many philosophers think that they are, and I call such philosophers ‘difference theorists’. Many difference theorists locate that difference in the alleged fact that only in the natural sciences does explanation essentially include laws.

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10.1017/s1358246100005063

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David-Hillel Ruben
Birkbeck, University of London

Citations of this work

Breaking the explanatory circle.Michael Townsen Hicks - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 178 (2):533-557.
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References found in this work

The Logic of Scientific Discovery.Karl Popper - 1959 - Studia Logica 9:262-265.
The Structure of Science.Ernest Nagel - 1961 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 17 (2):275-275.
Explanation and scientific understanding.Michael Friedman - 1974 - Journal of Philosophy 71 (1):5-19.
Laws of nature.Fred I. Dretske - 1977 - Philosophy of Science 44 (2):248-268.
Mental Events.Donald Davidson - 1970 - In Lawrence Foster & Joe William Swanson (eds.), Experience and Theory. London, England: Humanities Press.

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