But what, then, about the causal claims needed for this, for showing that
the agent’s reasons play a proper explanatory role if indeed they do, or showing
the opposite if not? Here, Weber’s insight (cf. Ringer 1997, 63-91) is that
what serves in the explanation or as the backup to it are not necessarily or
normally causal laws, but instead singular causal explanations or sequences.
Weber writes:Wherever the causal explanation of a cultural phenomenon—an “historical
individual” is under consideration, the knowledge of causal laws is
not the end of the investigation but only a means. It facilitates and
renders possible the causal imputation to their concrete causes of those
components of a phenomenon the individuality of which is culturally
significant. (Weber 1949, 79)