Description

Book Synopsis
This widely acclaimed account of the role of counterfactuals in explanation deploys extended examples from both history and modern times. Its conclusions cast doubt on existing assumptions about the nature and place of theory, and indeed of the possibility of knowledge itself, in the human sciences.

Trade Review
'Hawthorn's Plausible Worlds is not only a good read, filled with all sorts of fascinating information, but a book that raises very large and interesting questions about the nature of explanation in the human sciences. I found his answers to the questions persuasive.' Richard Rorty
'This volume is a marvelously stimulating and thought provoking work. It ought to be on the reading lists of advanced courses on both the theory and the methodology of history writing.' Allan Megill, The American Historical Review

Table of Contents
1. Counterfactuals, explanation and understanding; 2. Plague and fertility in early modern Europe; 3. The United States in South Korea; 4. Duccio's painting; 5. Explanation, understanding and theory.

Plausible Worlds

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    A Paperback by Geoffrey Hawthorn

    15 in stock

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      Publisher: Cambridge University Press
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 11/18/1993 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780521457767, 978-0521457767
      ISBN10: 0521457769
      Also in:
      History: theory and methods

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      This widely acclaimed account of the role of counterfactuals in explanation deploys extended examples from both history and modern times. Its conclusions cast doubt on existing assumptions about the nature and place of theory, and indeed of the possibility of knowledge itself, in the human sciences.

      Trade Review
      'Hawthorn's Plausible Worlds is not only a good read, filled with all sorts of fascinating information, but a book that raises very large and interesting questions about the nature of explanation in the human sciences. I found his answers to the questions persuasive.' Richard Rorty
      'This volume is a marvelously stimulating and thought provoking work. It ought to be on the reading lists of advanced courses on both the theory and the methodology of history writing.' Allan Megill, The American Historical Review

      Table of Contents
      1. Counterfactuals, explanation and understanding; 2. Plague and fertility in early modern Europe; 3. The United States in South Korea; 4. Duccio's painting; 5. Explanation, understanding and theory.

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