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11Understanding causation in social-ecological systems (SES) is indispensable for promoting sustainable outcomes. However, the study of such causal relations is challenging because they are often complex and intertwined, and their analysis involves diverse disciplines. Although there is agreement that no single research approach (RA) can comprehensively explain SES phenomena, there is a lack of ability to deal with this diversity. Underlying this diversity and the challenge of dealing with it are …Read more
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Explaining institutional changeIn Harold Kincaid & Jeroen van Bouwel (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Political Science, Oxford University Press. 2023.
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282Explaining Institutional ChangeIn Harold Kincaid & Jeroen van Bouwel (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Political Science, Oxford University Press. pp. 120-138. 2023.In this Chapter, we address the challenge of explaining institutional change, asking whether the much-criticized rational choice perspective can contribute to the understanding of institutional change in political science. We discuss the methodological reasons why rational choice institutionalism (RCI) often assumes that institutional change is exogenous and discontinuous. We then identify and explore the possible pathways along which RCI can be extended to be more useful in understanding instit…Read more
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4Book Reviews : Scientific Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis, by Barry Barnes, David Bloor, and John Henry. Chicago: Chicago University Press; London: Athlone Press, 1996, xii + 230 pp. $38.00/£42.00 (cloth), $15.95/£15.95 (paper (review)Science, Technology and Human Values 23 (3): 349-351. 1998.
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68Humanistic interpretation and machine learningSynthese 199. 2021.This paper investigates how unsupervised machine learning methods might make hermeneutic interpretive text analysis more objective in the social sciences. Through a close examination of the uses of topic modeling—a popular unsupervised approach in the social sciences—it argues that the primary way in which unsupervised learning supports interpretation is by allowing interpreters to discover unanticipated information in larger and more diverse corpora and by improving the transparency of the inte…Read more
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76Argumentative landscapes: the function of models in social epistemologySynthese 199 (1-2): 369-395. 2021.We argue that the appraisal of models in social epistemology requires conceiving of them as argumentative devices, taking into account the argumentative context and adopting a family-of-models perspective. We draw up such an account and show how it makes it easier to see the value and limits of the use of models in social epistemology. To illustrate our points, we document and explicate the argumentative role of epistemic landscape models in social epistemology and highlight their limitations. W…Read more
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36Case study research in the social sciencesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 78 (C): 1-4. 2019.In this paper, we offer an introduction to case study research in the social sciences. We begin with a discussion of the definition of case study research. Next, we point to various purposes that case study research may serve in the social sciences and then turn to outline the main philosophical issues raised by case study research. Finally, we briefly present the papers in this special issue.
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35Individuals and Identity in Economics, John B. Davis. Cambridge University Press, 2011, x + 260 pages (review)Economics and Philosophy 29 (1): 142-147. 2013.
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Syistä selityksiin. Kausaalisuus ja selittäminen yhteiskuntatieteissä (edited book)Gaudeamus. 2018.Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tutkimus on pohjimmiltaan kysymyksiin vastaamista. Kysymysten avulla hahmotellaan yhteiskunnallisille ilmiöille syitä ja seurauksia. Mikä rooli syy-seuraussuhteiden ymmärtämisellä sitten on arvioitaessa ja täsmennettäessä yhteiskuntatieteellisiä selitysmalleja? Kausaalinen järkeily ja selittäminen läpäisee kaikkea yhteiskuntatieteellistä tutkimusta tutkimusmenetelmistä ja -asetelmista riippumatta. Kausaalisuuden käsitettä, kausaalisuhteita ja kausaalisia päätelmiä koskevi…Read more
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50Mechanism-based theorizing and generalization from case studiesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 78 (C): 14-22. 2019.Generalization from a case study is a perennial issue in the methodology of the social sciences. The case study is one of the most important research designs in many social scientific fields, but no shared understanding exists of the epistemic import of case studies. This article suggests that the idea of mechanism-based theorizing provides a fruitful basis for understanding how case studies contribute to a general understanding of social phenomena. This approach is illustrated with a re- constr…Read more
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60Three Conceptions of a Theory of InstitutionsPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 48 (6): 550-568. 2018.We compare Guala’s unified theory of institutions with that of Searle and Greif. We show that unification can be many things and it may be associated with diverse explanatory goals. We also highlight some of the important shortcomings of Guala’s account: it does not capture all social institutions, its ability to bridge social ontology and game theory is based on a problematic interpretation of the type-token distinction, and its ability to make social ontology useful for social sciences is hind…Read more
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52Comment on Naturalizing Critical Realist Social OntologyJournal of Social Ontology 1 (2): 333-340. 2015.This comment discusses Kaidesoja and raises the issue whether his analysis justifies stronger conclusions than he presents in the book. My comments focus on four issues. First, I argue that his naturalistic reconstruction of critical realist transcendental arguments shows that transcendental arguments should be treated as a rare curiosity rather than a general argumentative strategy. Second, I suggest that Kaidesoja’s analysis does not really justify his optimism about the usefulness of causal p…Read more
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70Rethinking Explanation (edited book)Springer. 2007.This book highlights some of the conceptual problems that still need to be solved and points out a number of fresh philosophical ideas to explore.
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83Understanding Interests and Causal ExplanationDissertation, University of Helsinki. 2001.This work consists of two parts. Part I will be a contribution to a philo- sophical discussion of the nature of causal explanation. It will present my contrastive counterfactual theory of causal explanation and show how it can be used to deal with a number of problems facing theories of causal explanation. Part II is a contribution to a discussion of the na- ture of interest explanation in social studies of science. The aim is to help to resolve some controversies concerning interest explanation…Read more
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95The Illusion of Depth of Understanding in ScienceIn Henk De Regt, Sabina Leonelli & Kai Eigner (eds.), Scientific Understanding: Philosophical Perspectives, University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 100--119. 2009.In this chapter I will employ a well-known scientific research heuristic that studies how something works by focusing on circumstances in which it does not work. Rather than trying to describe what scientific understanding would ideally look like, I will try to learn something about it by observing mundane cases where understanding is partly illusory. My main thesis is that scientists are prone to the illusion of depth of understanding (IDU), and as a consequence they sometimes overestimate the …Read more
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58How organization explainsIn Vassilios Karakostas & Dennis Dieks (eds.), Epsa11 Perspectives and Foundational Problems in Philosophy of Science, Springer. pp. 69--80. 2013.Constitutivemechanisticexplanationsexplainapropertyofawholewith the properties of its parts and their organization. Carl Craver’s mutual manipulability criterion for constitutive relevance only captures the explanatory relevance of causal properties of parts and leaves the organization side of mechanistic explanation unaccounted for. We use the contrastive counterfactual theory of explanation and an account of the dimensions of organization to build a typology of organizational dependence. We an…Read more
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62Social mechanisms and explanatory relevanceIn Pierre Demeulenaere (ed.), Analytical Sociology and Social Mechanisms, Cambridge University Press. pp. 154. 2011.
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196The third dogma revisitedFoundations of Science 10 (4). 2005.This paper is an attempt to further our understanding of mechanisms conceived of as ontologically separable from laws. What opportunities are there for a mechanistic perspective to be independent of, or even more fundamental than, a law perspective? Advocates of the mechanistic view often play with the possibility of internal and external reliability, or with the paralleling possibilities of enforcing, counteracting, redirecting, etc., the mechanisms’ power to produce To further this discussion …Read more
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70Realism in Action: Essays in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (edited book)Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2003.Realism in Action is a selection of essays written by leading representatives in the fields of action theory and philosophy of mind, philosophy of the social sciences and especially the nature of social action, and of epistemology and philosophy of science. Practical reason, reasons and causes in action theory, intending and trying, and folk-psychological explanation are some of the topics discussed by these leading participants. A particular emphasis is laid on trust, commitments and social ins…Read more
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386We-attitudes and Social InstitutionsIn Georg Meggle (ed.), Social Facts and Collective Intentionality. Philosophische Forschung / Philosophical research, Dr. Hänsel-hohenhausen. 2002.
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Analytical SociologyIn Ian C. Jarvie & Jesus Zamoro Bonilla (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of the Philosophy of Social Sciences, Sage. 2011.
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449Kymmenen haastetta kausaalisen selittämisen teorialleAjatus 59 155-177. 2002.Väitöskirjassani Understanding Interests and Causal Explanation (2001) hahmottelin teoriaa yksittäisten tapahtumien kausaalisesta selittämisestä. Tässä kirjoituksessa tarkastelen niitä haasteita tai vaatimuksia, joihin teoriani yritti vastata. Alustavien huomioiden jälkeen esittelen ensiksi erityisesti selittämisen teoriaan liittyviä haasteita ja sen jälkeen yleisempiä filosofisia vaatimuksia hyväksyttävälle selittämisen teorialle.
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60Book Review: Sawyer, R. Keith. (2005). Social Emergence: Societies as Complex Systems. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences 39 (3): 527-530. 2009.
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Social Science |
Sociology of Science |
Explanation |
Interlevel Relations in Science |
Theories and Models |
Areas of Interest
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