Semantic Explanation in the Social Sciences

• In Event: Methods and Methodologies in the History of Sociology and Social Thought

Abstract

This paper introduces semantic explanation as a distinct mode of analysis in the social sciences. Whereas causal explanation accounts for empirical regularities by identifying intervening mechanisms that transmit effects across space and time, semantic explanation renders such patterns intelligible by uncovering structured and historically grounded relationships among the meanings of the categories involved. Drawing on a constructivist framework, we argue that many X-Y regularities are a product of semantic proximity between X and Y. We show how a third category—a semantic reference point (S)—reveals this semantic proximity. We distinguish three types of semantic reference points—constitutive bridges, interpretive frames, and genealogical lineages—and examine how each can explain a regularity without recourse to causality. We consider how causal mechanisms and semantic reference points can join forces in a productive division of explanatory labor.

Authors

• James Mahoney, Northwestern University

• Jack Votava, Northwestern University