Situational logic

Situational logic (also situational analysis)[1] is a concept advanced by Karl Popper in his The Poverty of Historicism.[2] Situational logic is a process by which a social scientist tries to reconstruct the problem situation confronting an agent in order to understand that agent's choice.

For situational analysis in strategic management, see Situation analysis.

Noretta Koertge (1975) provides a helpful clarificatory summary.[note 1]

First provide a description of the situation:
''Agent A was in a situation of type C''.
This situation is then analysed
''In a situation of type C, the appropriate thing to do is X.''
The rationality principle may then be called upon:
''agents always act appropriately to their situation''
Finally we have the explanadum:
''(therefore) A did X.''[3]

Notes
  1. This use of this summary is from Boumans and Davis (2010).

References
  1. Boumans, M. and Davis, John B. (2015), Economic Methodology: Understanding Economics as a Science, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 92.
  2. Popper, Karl (2013), The Poverty of Historicism, Routledge, p. 141.
  3. Koertge, N. (1975), "Popper's Metaphysical Research Program for the Human Sciences", Inquiry, 18 (1975), 437–62.


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