Structural Explanation: Garfinkelian Themes

Abstract

This chapter proposes a new definition of “structural explanation.” The definition says that something is a structural explanation iff it (i) is an answer to a question of the form “why did such-and-such have a certain effect?” that (ii) cites a structural fact. On this definition structures don’t explain in the way that causes do, but instead in the way that background conditions do. This definition is not meant to compete with other definitions. Another good definition says that a structural explanation is a causal explanation that cites a structure as a cause. The new definition is needed because many examples of explanations in the social sciences that seem, intuitively, to be structural explanations meet the new definition but not the old one. The new definition is developed by examining some claims about structural explanation Alan Garfinkel makes in his book Forms of Explanation.