The logic of explanation in the social sciences

This book investigates the classical problems of methodology of the social sciences (specially, the contraposition between “individualism” and “collectivism”, “explanation” and “comprehension”). An examine, above all, the notions of “causality”, “scientific law”, objectivity”, “empathy”, “circle hermeneutics”, “rationality of action”, “scientific fact”, “unintentional consequences”, “spontaneous order”, “dispersion of knowledge”, in this handbook are analysed the different methodological perspectives with the intention to point out its limits and heuristic potentiality. The author try to stress the contribution that every methodological paradigm can offer to the definition of a method which can permit to the social sciences to satisfy the epistemological standards of objectivity and falsificability. In particular, the author suggests a method which integrates tree traditions of researches: methodological individualism, hermeneutics and theory of nomological explanation. Rich of examples and of references to the history of social sciences, this handbook is a rigorous defense of the possibility of objective explanations in the human and social sciences.