External and Internal Explanation
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Description
Should the social sciences focus more than they now do on solving real (explanatory) problems and less on developing methodologies or pursuing methodological programs? Two distinct worries animate this question. One is that too many resources may be devoted to the development and refinement of methodologies and theories, while too little attention is paid to the actual things needing explanation. In this sense there may be a misallocation of social scientific resources. The other worry is that when proponents of some methodology turn to explaining a particular event or phenomenon, they tend to produce distorted accounts; they are deflected by their inordinate attention to and sympathy for their favorite method. Method-driven social science comes up with defective explanations. Proper attempts to explain things, one might think, ought to be open ended and responsive to the phenomenon to be explained and not be committed in advance to any particular explanatory methodology. Such a commitment smacks of dogmatism or a priori-ism. These complaints are often illustrated by the familiar metaphors of drunks searching under street-lamps and the law of the hammer. My inclination is to resist the question as not quite usefully posed. The development of systematic methodologies and theories is what permits the social sciences—or particular approaches to social science—to make distinctive and sometimes valuable contributions to understanding the events that interest us. There are several reasons why this is the case. A methodological focus can throw new light on old issues in various ways; things that might be taken for granted from one perspective look problematic and in need of explanation from another. It can show how new kinds of evidence can bear on the explanation of an event, and how evidence—old as well as new—ought be interpreted. Even if commitment to a particular method tends to produce uneven or partial explanations in some cases, such a commitment can enhance our understanding of phenomena by providing a new perspective on events that had previously been thought to be adequately understood.
Source Publication
Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics
Source Editors/Authors
Ian Shapiro, Rogers M. Smith, Tarek E. Masoud
Publication Date
2004
Recommended Citation
Ferejohn, John A., "External and Internal Explanation" (2004). Faculty Chapters. 537.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/537
