Reduction of Surprise
Some Thoughts on Dowding’s Conception of Explanation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6346173 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kai Spiekermann (0000-0003-4983-5589, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 187-193 |
| Publication date | 2017-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Studies Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1478-9299 • E-ISSN: 1478-9302 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917693641 |
| OpenAlex | W2607792302 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
Keith Dowding’s book is a tour de force through some important debates in the philosophy of the social sciences. In this short comment I focus on the role of explanation and how (if at all) causation is or should be related to explanation in political science. By appealing to the difference between predictive and explanatory power, I critically engage with Dowding’s proposal that explanation is the reduction of surprise. This leads me to a brief detour to the philosophy of models before I return to the issue of causation, especially the difference between causation as dependence and causation as production and how this distinction can inform methodological debates in political science
Causation · Economics · Epistemology · Explanatory power · Focus (optics · Philosophy of science · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Predictive power · Sociology · Surprise · Economic Theory and Institutions · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.11 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2017 - 2017 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |