Situational logic explained

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.^[3]

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.''^[4]

Notes and References

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.
3. This use of this summary is from Boumans and Davis (2010).
4. Koertge, N. (1975), "Popper's Metaphysical Research Program for the Human Sciences", Inquiry, 18 (1975), 437–62.