Explanation and Human Action

inquiry. In Louch's view, purpose-reason in acting directed towards accomplishing a task or achieving a goal-is crucial to the understanding of human behaviour as such. This, however, necessarily involves the appraisal of such behaviour in the light of the particular circumstances in which it occurs. And it is such appraisal, rather than the discovery of lawlike explanations or the making of predictions, that should characterize the social sciences. 'In