Under What Conditions Can Formal Models of Social Action Claim Explanatory Power?

• Published in: International studies in the philosophy of science Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 47 - 64
• Main Author: Bulle, Nathalie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.03.2009
• Subjects: Formalization; Philosophy of science; Social action; Social interaction; Sociological theory
• ISSN: 0269-8595; 1469-9281
• DOI: 10.1080/02698590902843385

This paper's purpose is to set forth the conditions of explanation in the domain of formal modelling of social action. Explanation is defined as an adequate account of the underlying factors bringing about a phenomenon. The modelling of a social phenomenon can claim explanatory value in this sense if the following two conditions are fulfilled. (1) The generative mechanisms involved translate the effects of real factors abstracted from their phenomenal context, not those of purely ideal ones. (2) The explanatory hypotheses, which account for the effects of explanatory factors, and the purely descriptive hypotheses, which introduce conceptual simplifications and summarise complex secondary mechanisms, are relatively independent from each other with regard to the phenomenon represented. This condition subjects the model to testing by alternatives through the development of purely descriptive hypotheses in the sense of explanatory or analytical realism.