Causal Explanation for Social Scientists

Andrew P. Vayda is professor emeritus of anthropology and ecology at Rutgers University. Bradley B. Walters is professor of geography and environment at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.

The 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.

• Introductory Essay: Pragmatic Methods and Causal-History Explanationsby Andrew P. Vayda and Bradley B. WaltersPart I. A Pragmatic View of Causal ExplanationChapter 1. Causal Explanation by David LewisChapter 2. The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events by E. E. Evans-PritchardChapter 3. Geertz and the Interpretive Approach in Anthropology by Michael MartinPart II. Causal Histories of EventsChapter 4. The Range and Power of Narrative Style in Science by Stephen Jay GouldChapter 5. Famines by Amartya SenChapter 6. Analysis or Reductionism? by Ernst MayrChapter 7. The Role of Fact in the Particular and the General by Richard C. LewontinChapter 8. Explanatory Relativity by Alan GarfinkelPart III. "How-Possibly" ExplanationsChapter 9. Homage to Clio, or Toward an Historical Philosophy for Evolutionary Biology by Robert J. O'HaraPart IV. Systems and StructuresChapter 10. Plague and Fertility in Early Modern Europe by Geoffrey HawthornPart V. Theories, Generalizations, and Practical JudgmentsChapter 11. Thermostats, Lemons, and Other Families of Models by Thomas C. SchellingChapter 12. Rice Harvesting: A View from the Theory of Common Property by Neil H. Sturgess and Hesti WijayaPart VI. Causal Reasoning: Forms, Results, and CaveatsChapter 13. Statistical Models and Shoe Leather by David A. FreedmanChapter 14. The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses by T.C. ChamberlinChapter 15. Confirmation Biase: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises by Raymond S. NickersonChapter 16. The Last Northern Cod by Thomas R. McGuireChapter 17. The Body of the Detective Model: Charles S. Peirce and Edgar Allan Poe by Nancy HarrowitzChapter 18. Thinking and Reasoning in Medicine by Vimla L. Patel, Jose F. Arocha, and Jiajie ZhangChapter 19. On Types of Scientific Inquiry: The Role of Qualitative Reasoning by David A. FreedmanChapter 20. Counterfactuals and Revisionism in Historical Explanation by Ross HassigPart VII. Consequence Explanations and their MisuseChapter 21. The Obsessional Search for Meaning by Jon ElsterChapter 22. Confirmation Bias in Consequence Explanations by Andrew P. VaydaPart VIII. Dos and Don'ts in Interdisciplinary Research on Causes of EventsChapter 23. Dos and Don'ts in Interdisciplinary Research on Causes of Fires in Tropical Moist Forests: Examples from Indonesia by Andrew P. VaydaChapter 24. Critical Regions, Ecosystem Management, and Human Ecosystem Research by Thomas K. RudelIndex