Plausible worlds

Possibilities haunt history. The force of our explanations of events turns on the alternative possibilities those explanations suggest. It is these possible worlds that give us our understanding; and in human affairs, we decide them by practical rather than theoretical judgment. In this widely acclaimed account of the role of counterfactuals in explanation, Geoffrey Hawthorn deploys extended examples to defend his argument. His conclusions cast doubt on existing assumptions about the nature and place of theory, and indeed of the possibility of knowledge itself, in the human sciences.

First sentence: It can be tempting to play what E. H. Carr called 'parlour-games with might-have-beens'.

Year

1991

Language

English

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Editions

2

Pages

206

ISBN

9780521457767

Data source: Wikidata