{"product_id":"causal-explanation-for-social-scientists-9780759113268","title":"Causal Explanation for Social Scientists","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll social scientists, despite their differences on many issues, ask causal questions about the world. In this anthology, Andrew P. Vayda and Bradley B. Walters set forth strategy and methods to answer those questions. The selected readings, all illuminating causal explanation for social scientists, are not only by anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and human ecologists but also by philosophers, biologists, psychologists, historians, and specialists in other fields. The essays will appeal to those doing applied research on practical problems as well as those seeking mainly to satisfy their curiosity about the causes of whatever events or types of events interest them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe volume is a compendium unlike most others. Rather than gather causal arguments about specific substantive outcomes, Vayda and Walters have assembled essays on how to question, how to reason, and why to do it a pragmatic fashion....The book is thoroughly coherent, strategically repetitive, and by no means unconvincing. Whether your field is human ecology, land change science, vulnerability research, or political ecology, there are sobering lessons here about bad methodological habits and good question writing....[I]t is hard not to come away from this collection with a renewed sense of energy and possibility. The world is filled with strange events and outcomes, after all, none of which have ready-made answers, and all of which can avail themselves to energetic observers with open minds. For a moment, viewed this way, it is possible to think that environment-society research might actually be filled with surprise. That is a welcome message. * Human Ecology *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroductory Essay: Pragmatic Methods and Causal-History Explanations by Andrew P. Vayda and Bradley B. Walters  Part I. A Pragmatic View of Causal Explanation Chapter 1. Causal Explanation by David Lewis Chapter 2. The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events by E. E. Evans-Pritchard Chapter 3. Geertz and the Interpretive Approach in Anthropology by Michael Martin  Part II. Causal Histories of Events Chapter 4. The Range and Power of Narrative Style in Science by Stephen Jay Gould Chapter 5. Famines by Amartya Sen Chapter 6. Analysis or Reductionism? by Ernst Mayr Chapter 7. The Role of Fact in the Particular and the General by Richard C. Lewontin Chapter 8. Explanatory Relativity by Alan Garfinkel  Part III. \"How-Possibly\" Explanations Chapter 9. Homage to Clio, or Toward an Historical Philosophy for Evolutionary Biology by Robert J. O'Hara  Part IV. Systems and Structures Chapter 10. Plague and Fertility in Early Modern Europe  by Geoffrey Hawthorn  Part V. Theories, Generalizations, and Practical Judgments   Chapter 11. Thermostats, Lemons, and Other Families of Models   by Thomas C. Schelling Chapter 12. Rice Harvesting: A View from the Theory of Common Property  by Neil H. Sturgess and Hesti Wijaya  Part VI. Causal Reasoning: Forms, Results, and Caveats Chapter 13. Statistical Models and Shoe Leather by David A. Freedman Chapter 14. The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses by T.C. Chamberlin Chapter 15. Confirmation Biase: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises by Raymond S. Nickerson Chapter 16. The Last Northern Cod  by Thomas R. McGuire Chapter 17. The Body of the Detective Model: Charles S. Peirce and Edgar Allan Poe by Nancy Harrowitz Chapter 18. Thinking and Reasoning in Medicine  by Vimla L. Patel, Jose F. Arocha, and Jiajie Zhang Chapter 19. On Types of Scientific Inquiry: The Role of Qualitative Reasoning  by David A. Freedman Chapter 20. Counterfactuals and Revisionism in Historical Explanation  by Ross Hassig  Part VII. Consequence Explanations and their Misuse Chapter 21. The Obsessional Search for Meaning  by Jon Elster Chapter 22. Confirmation Bias in Consequence Explanations by Andrew P. Vayda  Part VIII. Dos and Don'ts in Interdisciplinary Research on Causes of Events Chapter 23. Dos and Don'ts in Interdisciplinary Research on Causes of Fires in Tropical Moist Forests: Examples from Indonesia  by Andrew P. Vayda Chapter 24. Critical Regions, Ecosystem Management, and Human Ecosystem Research by Thomas K. Rudel Index","brand":"Rlpg\/Galleys","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51037742367063,"sku":"9780759113268","price":46.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780759113268.jpg?v=1750937088","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/causal-explanation-for-social-scientists-9780759113268","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}