IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/119641.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Deep Causality and Counterfactuals for Scientific Explanation and Ethically Efficacious Economics and Social Sciences: How can the social sciences help make policies for advancing the common good?

Author

Listed:
  • Khan, Haider

Abstract

What does a causal explanation deliver in any science, but particularly in the social sciences? How are relatively deeper scientific explanations to be distinguished from superficial or shallower ones? Furthermore, what roles can counterfactual analysis play in social sciences and policy making? For a competent, morally motivated scientific policy maker, it is important to avoid inflicting harm and promote the common good. The purpose of this paper is to clarify how the idea of depth can play a role in finding the more "approximately true" explanation through causal comparisons and counterfactual conditionals that are scientifically salient in principle. In doing so, we must also be able to avoid inflicting harm and promote the common good. It is not an exhaustive treatment but rather focuses on a few aspects that may be the most critical in evaluating the explanatory strengths of a theory in the social sciences. It presents a general argument which is anti-Humean on the critical side and scientific realist on the positive and normative side. It also elucidates how explanations in political economy and other social sciences can be judged by the scientific realist criterion of causal depth by an extensive example from research in the political economy of development. In this case, an "intentional" and methodologically individualist neoclassical explanation is contrasted with a "structural" dual-dual approach as rival theories purporting to explain the same set of phenomena. Finally, avoiding harmful policies and aiding in making policies for advancing the common good are more likely if the methodological approach advocated here is adopted for responsible practice. Ultimately, following the methodology advanced here , it will be possible to drive further the tendencies towards the creation of an ethically efficacious economics(EEE) for ecologically sustainable humane policy making.

Suggested Citation

  • Khan, Haider, 2024. "Deep Causality and Counterfactuals for Scientific Explanation and Ethically Efficacious Economics and Social Sciences: How can the social sciences help make policies for advancing the common good?," MPRA Paper 119641, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:119641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/119641/1/MPRA_paper_119641.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thorbjørn Knudsen, 2004. "General selection theory and economic evolution: The Price equation and the replicator/interactor distinction," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 147-173.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Geoffrey Hodgson & Thorbjørn Knudsen, 2006. "The nature and units of social selection," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 477-489, December.
    2. Markus Grillitsch & Magnus Nilsson, 2019. "Knowledge externalities and firm heterogeneity: Effects on high and low growth firms," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 93-114, February.
    3. A. Madureira & F. Hartog & N. Baken, 2016. "A holonic framework to understand and apply information processes in evolutionary economics: survey and proposal," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 157-190, September.
    4. Esben Andersen & Jacob Holm, 2014. "The signs of change in economic evolution," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 291-316, April.
    5. John Stanley Metcalfe & Ronnie Ramlogan, 2006. "Creative Destruction and the Measurement of Productivity Change," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 97(5), pages 373-397.
    6. Christian Cordes, 2014. "There are several ways to incorporate evolutionary concepts into economic thinking," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2014-02, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    7. Pavel Pelikan, 2011. "Evolutionary developmental economics: how to generalize Darwinism fruitfully to help comprehend economic change," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 341-366, May.
    8. Luna, Ivette & Hiratuka, Celio & Haddad Netto, Elias Youssef, 2016. "Survival of the fittest or does size matter: What are the main drivers of Productivity in Brazil?," MPRA Paper 78208, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2016.
    9. Geoffrey Hodgson & Thorbjørn Knudsen, 2008. "In search of general evolutionary principles: Why Darwinism is too important to be left to the biologists," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 51-69, April.
    10. Luna, Ivette & de Souza Luz, Manuel Ramón & Hiratuka, Celio & Fracalanza, Paulo Sérgio, 2015. "Variação da produtividade do trabalho numa perspectiva evolucionária: aplicação da equação de Price para análise da indústria de transformação no Brasil entre 2007 e 2011 [Changes in labour product," MPRA Paper 78198, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Christian Cordes, 2006. "Darwinism in economics: from analogy to continuity," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 529-541, December.
    12. Hodgson, Geoffrey M. & Knudsen, Thorbjorn, 2006. "Why we need a generalized Darwinism, and why generalized Darwinism is not enough," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 1-19, September.
    13. Yoguel, Gabriel & Pereira, Mariano, 2014. "Industrial and technological policy: Contributions from evolutionary perspectives to policy design in developing countries," MPRA Paper 56290, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Khan, Haider, 2024. "Uneven Development: Causal Explanations and Counterfactuals with Structural Depth," MPRA Paper 120348, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Foster, John, 2021. "In search of a suitable heuristic for evolutionary economics: from generalized Darwinism to economic self-organisation," MPRA Paper 106146, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Jürgen Essletzbichler & David L. Rigby, 2010. "Generalized Darwinism and Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. John Metcalfe, 2008. "Accounting for economic evolution: Fitness and the population method," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 23-49, April.
    18. J. Stan Metcalfe & John Foster, 2010. "Evolutionary Growth Theory," Chapters, in: Mark Setterfield (ed.), Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Growth, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Richard Arena, 2017. "Schumpeter and Schumpeterians on competition: some policy implications," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 161-186, January.
    20. Brendan Markey-Towler, 2016. "Law of the jungle: firm survival and price dynamics in evolutionary markets," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 655-696, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Scientific Explanations; Social and Economic Explanations; Causal Depth; Critical Scientific Realism; Political Economy; Neoclassical Economics; Structuralism; Social Science Theories; Economic Models; Ethics and Economics; Counterfactuals and Causal Efficacy; Common Good. Economic Justice; Ethically Efficacious Economics(EEE);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:119641. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.