The Imputation of Motives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2200907 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert M Maciver (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1940 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-12 |
| Publication date | 1940-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9602 • E-ISSN: 1537-5390 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/218521 |
| OpenAlex | W2018676048 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
All causal imputation is inferential, but the imputation of motives is an inference of a peculiar kind and subject to peculiar difficulties. Consequently there are those who regard it as a wholly uscientific procedure. Sometimes they claim that the language of "motives and goals" is itself unscientific, but this is a dogmatic and metaphysical limitation of the realm of science. More plausibly they claim that since motives are baffling and unverifiable they lie outside the scope of scientific investigation. But this claim goes too far, since motives manifest themselves in various evidential ways, and science may properly examine the bearing of the evidences, even where certainty is not attainable. The moral is not that we abandon the investigation of motives-for they are intimate data of human experience-but that we make the recognition of difficulties the basis for more thorough investigation
Certainty · Epistemology · Imputation (statistics) · Inference · Metaphysics · Missing data · Political science · Realm · Computer Science · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 1942 - 2024 (83) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |