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.

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

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

References

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

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[3] This use of this summary is from Boumans and Davis (2010).

[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.

[4] Koertge, N. (1975), "Popper's Metaphysical Research Program for the Human Sciences", Inquiry, 18 (1975), 437–62.