'If p? Then What?' Thinking within, with, and from cases. (October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Morgan, Mary S.
• Other Names: Millard Chris guest-editor.; Callard Felicity guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: History of the human sciences. Volume 33:Number 3/4(2020:Jul.)
• Page Start: 198
• Page End: 217
• Publication Date: 2020-10
• Subjects: case-based knowledge -- case-based reasoning -- comparative cases -- runs of cases -- single cases; Social sciences -- History -- Periodicals; 300.9
• DOI: 10.1177/0952695119899349
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0952-6951

Abstract

The provocative paper by John Forrester 'If p, Then What? Thinking in Cases' (1996) opened up the question of case thinking as a separate mode of reasoning in the sciences. Case-based reasoning is certainly endemic across a number of sciences, but it has looked different according to where it has been found. This article investigates this mode of science – namely thinking in cases – by questioning the different interpretations of 'If p ?' and exploring the different interpretative responses of what follows in 'Then What?'. The aim is to characterize how 'reasoning in, within, with, and from cases' forms a mode of scientific investigation for single cases, for runs of cases, and for comparative cases, drawing on materials from a range of different fields in which case-based reasoning appears.