Are social mechanisms the antonym of laws?

Titolo Rivista EPISTEMOLOGIA
Autori/Curatori Amparo Gómez Rodríguez
Anno di pubblicazione 2015 Fascicolo 2015/1
Lingua Italiano Numero pagine 16 P. 31-46 Dimensione file 78 KB
DOI 10.3280/EPIS2015-001003
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The thesis that in social sciences causal explanations are possible only in terms of mechanisms due to the lack of genuine laws has been increasingly popular among social scientists and philosophers. In this article it is examined whether the explanation by mechanisms is necessarily an explanation without laws or, on the contrary, it can involve some kind of laws. To this end it is argued, firstly, that mechanisms are not always the antonym of laws insofar as they express propensities and so tendencies; secondly, that these tendencies are causal and entail capacities and dispositions; thirdly, that capacities and dispositions involved in human behaviour have to face the problem of free will; and finally, reasons are offered in favor of considering causal tendencies as authentic laws. The ultimate aim of this article is to demonstrate that explanation of social facts can involve well-established laws in its explanans, although they are not universal laws.;

Keywords:Meccanismi, capacità, disposizioni, tendenze, leggi sociali, spiegazione causale

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Amparo Gómez Rodríguez, Are social mechanisms the antonym of laws? in "EPISTEMOLOGIA" 1/2015, pp 31-46, DOI: 10.3280/EPIS2015-001003