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Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 37, No. 2, 163-184 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0048393107299686
© 2007 SAGE Publications

Do We Need Mechanisms in the Social Sciences?

Julian Reiss

Complutense University, Madrid

A recent movement in the social sciences and philosophy of the social sciences focuses on mechanisms as a central analytical unit. Starting from a pluralist perspective on the aims of the social sciences, I argue that there are a number of important aims to which knowledge about mechanisms—whatever their virtues relative to other aims—contributes very little at best and that investigating mechanisms is therefore a methodological strategy with fairly limited applicability.

Key Words: social science • mechanisms • explanation • critical realism • methodology


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T. Brante
Explanatory and Non-explanatory Goals in the Social Sciences: A Reply to Reiss
Philosophy of the Social Sciences, June 1, 2008; 38(2): 271 - 278.
[Abstract] [PDF]