One of the goals of the social sciences is to understand social phenomena, that is to
exhibit the mechanism underlying and bringing them about. This task goes beyond
description: to exhibit this mechanism requires identifying causal relations between
variables of interest. In quantitative social research, causal models are used to provide
such explanations of social phenomena. This paper investigates whether causal models
can be seen as models of explanation, and argues that causal modelling, by modelling causal
mechanisms, provides (or ought to provide) genuine causal explanations and should be
considered as a model of explanation, notably a hypothetico-deductive model of explanation
One of the goals of the social sciences is to understand social phenomena, that is toexhibit the mechanism underlying and bringing them about. This task goes beyonddescription: to exhibit this mechanism requires identifying causal relations betweenvariables of interest. In quantitative social research, causal models are used to providesuch explanations of social phenomena. This paper investigates whether causal modelscan be seen as models of explanation, and argues that causal modelling, by modelling causalmechanisms, provides (or ought to provide) genuine causal explanations and should beconsidered as a model of explanation, notably a hypothetico-deductive model of explanation
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