Situational logic (also situational analysis)[1] is a concept advanced by Karl Popper in his The Poverty of Historicism.[2] Situational logic is a process by which a social scientist tries to reconstruct the problem situation confronting an agent in order to understand that agent's choice.
Noretta Koertge (1975) provides a helpful clarificatory summary.[note 1]
- First provide a description of the situation:
- ''Agent A was in a situation of type C''.
- This situation is then analysed
- ''In a situation of type C, the appropriate thing to do is X.''
- The rationality principle may then be called upon:
- ''agents always act appropriately to their situation''
- Finally we have the explanadum:
- ''(therefore) A did X.''[3]