Wang, Yafeng (2026) Process Tracing and the Problem of Evaluating Causal Relationships Within a Case. Philosophy of the Social Sciences. ISSN 0048-3931

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Abstract

Process tracing method in the social sciences seek to assess hypothesized causal mechanisms in individual cases, but practitioners face a problem: How to use within-case evidence to evaluate singular causal relationships within hypothesized mechanism. This paper presents a partial solution to this problem by treating detailed features of the outcomes as observable consequences of the hypothesized causal relationships, given suitable auxiliary assumptions. This approach is then illustrated through analysis of a process-tracing study by Vesla Weaver. The paper concludes by examining how the feature-based approach relates to other frameworks for assessing singular causal claims.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Wang, Yafeng ya.wang@northeastern.edu 0000-0003-2126-4278
Keywords:	process tracing, singular causation, causal inference, causal mechanism, features
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Evidence
Depositing User:	Yafeng Wang
Date Deposited:	15 Apr 2026 12:32
Last Modified:	15 Apr 2026 12:32
Item ID:	29129
Journal or Publication Title:	Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Publisher:	Sage Journals
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/004839312...
DOI or Unique Handle:	https://doi.org/10.1177/00483931261441189
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Evidence
Date:	January 2026
ISSN:	0048-3931
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29129

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