All social scientists, despite their differences on many issues, ask causal questions about the world. In this anthology, Andrew P. Vayda and Bradley B. Walters set forth strategy and methods to answer those questions. The selected readings, all illuminating causal explanation for social scientists, are not only by anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and human ecologists but also by philosophers, biologists, psychologists, historians, and specialists in other fields. The essays will appeal to those doing applied research on practical problems as well as those seeking mainly to satisfy their curiosity about the causes of whatever events or types of events interest them.

Contributions by: José F. Arocha, T C. Chamberlin, Jon Elster, E E. Evans-Pritchard, David A. Freedman, Alan Garfinkel, Stephen Jay Gould, Nancy Harrowitz, Ross Hassig, Geoffrey Hawthorn, David Lewis, Richard C. Lewontin, Michael Martin, Ernst Mayr, Thomas R. McGuire, Raymond S. Nickerson, Robert J. O'Hara, Vimla L. Patel, Thomas K. Rudel, Thomas C. Schelling, Amartya Sen, Neil H. Sturgess, Hesti R. Wijaya, Jiajie Zhang