The Apparent Failure of “Situational Analysis” to Take Hold and an Attempt at Revitalizing It

Abstract

“Situational Analysis” (SA) constitutes Popper’s methodological proposal for the social sciences. We argue that notwithstanding Popper’s claim that SA is an attempt to extend the methodology of neoclassical economics to the rest of the social sciences, the former is better interpreted as an extension of his view of the “method” of history to the “theoretical” social sciences. The reason is that, unlike neoclassical economics, Popper’s formulation of SA presupposes that social scientists exhibit a “more complete” view of the “logic of the situation” than individual actors do, on average, which implies that the latter’s knowledge is “partially wrong” or “incomplete.”