Plausible worlds : possibility and understanding in history and the social sciences
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Plausible worlds : possibility and understanding in history and the social sciences
Cambridge University Press, 1993
- : pbk.
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Note
Includes index
"First paperback edition 1993"
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Possibilities haunt history. The force of our explanations of events turns on the alternative possibilities these explanations suggest. It is these possible worlds which give us our understanding; and in human affairs we decide them by practical rather than theoretical judgement. In his widely acclaimed account of the role of counterfactuals in explanation, Geoffrey Hawthorn deploys extended examples from history and modern times to defend his argument. His 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.
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.
by "Nielsen BookData"