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On Causality in Social Science
Author(s) -
Rhoads John K.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1971.tb01197.x
Subject(s) - causality (physics) , sociology , epistemology , conditionality , lexicon , subject (documents) , positivism , positive economics , social science , economics , philosophy , law , political science , computer science , politics , quantum mechanics , library science , linguistics , physics
The challenge to the principle of causality in other disciplines has been taken over by some sociologists, who have criticized its utility for sociological inquiry and who suggest in some instances that the term should be dropped from the sociological lexicon. The critiques are grounded in four somewhat overlapping perspectives: the positivist, the statistical, the inter‐actionist, and the conceptualist. A formulation of what constitutes causality is presented, which takes account of these critiques and which also attempts to preserve continuity with past definitions. The basic elements are ontological status, productivity, conditionality, uniformity, and asymmetry. The importance of this subject, why the notion should be retained by sociologists, and the difference that this formulation makes are discussed.