A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR INTERPRETING STRUCTURAL EXPLANATIONS

Social sciences face a well-known problem, which is an instance of a g eneral problem faced as well by psychological and biological sciences: the problem of establishing their legitimate existence alongside phys ics. This, as will become clear, is a problem in metaphysics. I will s how how a new account of structural explanations, put forward by Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit, which is designed to solve this metaphysic al problem with social sciences in mind, fails to treat the problem in any importantly new way. Then I will propose a more modest approach, and show how it does not deserve the criticism directed at a prototype by Jackson and Pettit.