Whatever Explains Whatever: The Duhem-Quine Thesis And Conventional Quantitative Methods In Political Science

The paper (for the first time, to the best knowledge of the author) applies the Duhem-Quine thesis to conventional quantitative methods in political science. As a result, the discussion of methodological problems associated with these methods is implanted into the epistemological issues highlighted by the Duhem-Quine thesis. Such a link between popular political science methods and philosophy of science could help clarify the difficulties of the former and give impetus to the improved research practices