ABSTRACT
Karl Popper and his followers, especially I. C. Jarvie, have argued that the primary method of the social sciences should be "situational logic". However, situational logic explanations are explanations set in institutional contexts in terms of beliefs, aims, and rationality of the actors, and the unintended consequences of their action. This sort of explanation is, in fact, one type of Verstehen explanation. The chapter explains the relation between situational logic and the method of conjecture and refutation. It describes the meaning of rationality. The chapter provides discussion on the situational logic explanations in the social sciences. It describes the causal importance of beliefs, aims, and rationality in causal explanations. Further, just as Max Weber argued that causal explanations in the social sciences should be in terms of rational explanatory Verstehen, so Popper maintained that situational logic explanations are causal.
