Date: 2009
Type: Article
The realist approach to explanatory mechanisms in social sciences : more than a heuristic?
Philosophy of the social sciences, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 440-462
DEMETRIOU, Chares, The realist approach to explanatory mechanisms in social sciences : more than a heuristic?, Philosophy of the social sciences, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 440-462
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/42227
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
The mechanism-realist paradigm in the philosophy of science, championed by Mario Bunge and Roy Bhaskar, sets certain expectations for the substantive social-scientific application of the paradigm. To evaluate the application of the paradigm in accomplished substantive research, as well as the potential for future research, I examine the work of Charles Tilly, the exemplary substantive work in the mechanism-realist tradition. Based on this examination, I argue for the usefulness of explanatory mechanisms, provided that they are couched in terms of a heuristic. Such a position is the most reasonable one to adopt given the expectations set by the paradigm in relation to complexity stemming from mechanism interaction and to a notion of causality that is deeper than that acknowledged by empiricism and positivism.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/42227
Full-text via DOI: 10.1177/0048393108329268
ISSN: 0048-3931; 1552-7441
Files associated with this item
Files | Size | Format | View |
---|---|---|---|
There are no files associated with this item. |