Situational logic

Situational logic (also situational analysis) is a concept advanced by Karl Popper in his The Poverty of Historicism. 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.


 * 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.