ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the general problem: In what ways are multiple causes held to impinge upon a given social phenomenon that the analyst wishes to explain, and in what ways are multiple effects held to proceed from such a phenomenon. It inquires about the form of relations between variables that represent hypothesized causes and hypothesized effects of social phenomena. The chapter examines some principles governing the way complex causal explanations and predictions are constructed from the elementary kinds of variables. It ends by examining three interrelated theories by Emile Durkheim, regarded as combinations of very simple elements. The chapter examines explanatory sociological analysis by considering various ways of combining two or more variables as they bear upon a given social phenomenon of interest–either as causes or as effects of that phenomenon. It discusses the relationship of the principles of emergence and contextuality to hierarchic structure among causes and among effects.
