* In a 2006 article in Ancient Mesoamerica, Zoltán Paulinyi argues that the Great Goddess or Spider Woman is " highly speculative " and is a result of fusing up to six unrelated gods and goddesses.

Samuel R. Delany's The American Shore ( 1978 ) is a book-length critical essay on the novella " Angouleme "; Delany argues that despite the lack of any scientific themes in " Angouleme ", its speculative setting makes it inherently science fiction.

In the chapter on Darwin's finches, Wells argues that Darwin's finches were merely a " speculative afterthought ".

In his article, Krugman argues that a sudden speculative attack on a fixed exchange rate, even though it appears to be an irrational change in expectations, can result from rational behavior by investors.

Modern political science pioneer Seymour Martin Lipset argues that Marshall proposes a model of social science based on the middle range analysis of social structures and institutions, as opposed to grand theories of the purposes of development and modernization, which were criticized by modern sociologists such as Robert K. Merton for being too speculative to provide valid results.

He argues that Hayek makes peculiar assumptions about demand curves for labor in his explanation of how a decrease in investment spending creates unemployment.

He also argues that the labor asymmetry can be explained in terms of a change in real wages, but this explanation fails to explain the business cycle in terms of resource allocation.

Hummel argues that the Austrian explanation of the business cycle fails on empirical grounds.

American philosopher Michael Martin argues that it is not necessarily true that objective moral truths must entail the existence of God, suggesting that there could be alternative explanations: he argues that naturalism may be an acceptable explanation and, even if a supernatural explanation is necessary, it does not have to be God ( polytheism is a viable alternative ).

Nevertheless, David E. White argues that the notion of an infinite causal regress providing a proper explanation is fallacious.

His ’ depiction of embryological development strongly differs from Haeckel ’ s depiction, for His argues that the phylogenetic explanation of ontogenetic events is unnecessary.

* Michael Halliday's systemic functional grammar argues that the explanation of how language works " needed to be grounded in a functional analysis, since language had evolved in the process of carrying out certain critical functions as human beings interacted with their ... ' eco-social ' environment ".

Joosten, however, while accepting that the carelessness of the English scribe is the most likely explanation for most such instances, nevertheless argues that a minority of such readings are due to translation errors in the Spanish text: as, for example, where the Italian text employs the conjunction pero, with an Italian meaning ' therefore '; while the Spanish text also reads pero, with a Spanish meaning ' however '; the Italian sense being the one demanded by the context.

And yet, he argues that the environmental explanation gained force after the discovery that IQ scores were rising over time.

He argues that the explanation of how language works " needed to be grounded in a functional analysis, since language had evolved in the process of carrying out certain critical functions as human beings interacted with their ... ' eco-social ' environment ".

Furthermore, Veal argues, the only explanation for the verbal parallels with the English translation of 1582 would be that the translator saw the play performed and echoed it in his translation, which he describes as " not an impossible theory but far from a plausible one.

William's biographer David Bates argues that the former explanation is more likely, explaining that the balance of power had recently shifted in Wales and that William would have wished to take advantage of the changed circumstances to extend Norman power.

It argues for the existence of mathematical entities as the best explanation for experience, thus stripping mathematics of being distinct from the other sciences.

When Polkinghorne argues that the minute adjustments of cosmological constants for life points towards an explanation beyond the scientific realm, Blackburn argues that this relies on a natural preference for explanation in terms of agency.

Writing in 335 BCE ( long after the Golden Age of 5th-century Athenian tragedy ), Aristotle provides the earliest-surviving explanation for the origin of the dramatic art-form in his Poetics, in which he argues that tragedy developed from the improvisations of the leader of choral dithyrambs ( hymns sung and danced in praise of Dionysos, the god of wine and fertility ):

Miller argues that Alexander's suggestion in 1969 that the reporter became confused, and introduced elements from other plays is unlikely, and instead suggests an adapter at work ( whom he refers to as the ' compiler '), writing in the romantic comedy tradition ; " the most economic explanation of indebtedness is that whoever compiled A Shrew borrowed the lines from Shakespeare's The Shrew, or a version of it, and adapted them.

Anthony Petterson argues that the standard explanation of Haggai and Zechariah ’ s prophesies, in which Zerubbabel was supposed to be the restorer of the Davidic dynasty but never fulfilled these expectations, does not actually stand as an explanation of the final form of these texts.

Salzberg also argues that gene loss combined with sample size effects and evolutionary rate variation provide an alternative, more biologically plausible explanation.

He argues that literature about land ( and, subsequently, about going back to the land ) is largely sentimental ; " little ," he writes, " is known about farmer's attitudes towards nature ..." Tuan finds historical instances of the desire of the civilized to escape civilization in the Hellenistic, Roman, Augustan, and Romantic eras, and, from one of the earliest recorded myths, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Ann Douglas argues that Crosby was one of the female authors who " emasculated American religion " and helped shift it from " a rigorous Calvinism " to " an anti-intellectual and sentimental mass culture ".

Cathy N. Davidson argues that The Coquette is not merely a novel about the evils of sin and seduction, but rather “ a remarkably detailed assessment of the marital possibilities facing late-eighteenth-century women of the middle or upper-middle classes .” Davidson notes the centrality of Foster ’ s novel in “ countering received ideas on women ’ s circumscribed power and authority ,” positioning The Coquette as “ an important voice in the debate on women ’ s role in the Republic .” In her exploration of the early American novel, Davidson uses the contradictions between Foster ’ s novel and the moral accounts of Elizabeth Whitman ’ s death to explore the emergence of the early American sentimental novel:

Halsall argues that no objectively-definable criterion can be consistently used to distinguish ethnic groups from one another: language, social customs, geographic habitation, religion or a common origin.

Although Smith places greater weight on this social determination he does not discount absolute principles completely, instead he argues that that evaluations are rarely inconsistent with custom, therefore giving greater weight to customs than absolutes:

Smith further argues for a " natural " right and wrong, and that custom amplifies the moral sentiments when one's customs are consistent with nature, but dampens moral sentiments when one's customs are inconsistent with nature.

The first item of the introduction argues that the currently existing translations of the Gospels were imperfect and were effectively unintelligible without proper relation to scholarly research about the culture and the customs of the peoples of the Middle-East.

Although Sonia Hawkes argues that the change in burial customs, which extended over most of Britain, resulted from Cuthbert's mandating burial in church yards, instead of outside the city limits as had been the custom previously.

Instead, he argues that the laws and customs that arise from each tribe are sustainable and “ right ” in their own way because they work for the tribe.

Otis Green argues in his España y la tradición occidental that in Abravanel's work human love is spiritualized, placing it in connection with divine love, by posing the necessity of going beyond physical union to merge minds and souls.

Following Ernest Becker, he argues that the desire to ' authoritatively disambiguate ' the world and existence has led to numerous ideologies and historical events such as genocide.

Even Colchester Museum argues strongly regarding the historical Arthur: " It would be impossible and inconceivable to link him to the Colchester area, or to Essex more generally ", pointing out that the connection between the name Camuloduum and Colchester was unknown till the 18th century.

" Sanders points out that the author would regard the gospel as theologically true as revealed spiritually even if its content is not historically accurate and argues that even historically plausible elements in John can hardly be taken as historical evidence, as they may well represent the author's intuition rather than historical recollection.

( argues historical materialism must be revised to include communicative action )

Oxford editor George Hibbard argues that, since the contemporary literature contains many allusions and references to Hamlet ( only Falstaff is mentioned more, from Shakespeare ), the play was surely performed with a frequency that the historical record misses.

In contrast, Paglia argues that a close reading of historical texts find that men do not hate women but fear them.

Yitzakh Magen argues that the version of Chronicles is perhaps closer to the historical truth, and that the Assyrian settlement was unsuccessful, a notable population remained in Samaria, part of which, following the conquest of Judah, fled south and settled there as refugees.

An argument for the conflict between religion and science that combines the historical and philosophical approaches has been presented by Neil Degrasse Tyson — Tyson argues that religious scientists, such as Isaac Newton, could have achieved more had they not accepted religious answers to unresolved scientific issues.

Dr Lee Illis of Guy's Hospital in London wrote a paper in 1963 entitled On Porphyria and the Aetiology of Werewolves, in which he argues that historical accounts on werewolves could have in fact been referring to victims of congenital porphyria, stating how the symptoms of photosensitivity, reddish teeth and psychosis could have been grounds for accusing a sufferer of being a werewolf.

" Historian Henry Reynolds argues that there was a " historical neglect " of the Aborigines by historians until the late 1960s.

Noting the uncertainties surrounding events so far back in time, Herman te Velde argues that the historical roots of the conflict are too obscure to be very useful in understanding the myth and are not as significant as its religious meaning.

argues that the number and diversity of African languages and the paucity of a historical record on creole genesis makes determining lexical correspondences a matter of chance.

Additionally, argues that some Romance languages are potential creoles but that they are not considered as such by linguists because of a historical bias against such a view.

He argues instead that European philosophy must acknowledge its historical indebtedness to Middle Eastern and African thought, which is not limited to the influence of Judaism alone.

One historical camp argues that Lincoln's flexibility, pragmatism, and superior political skills with Congress would have solved Reconstruction with far less difficulty.

E. H. Carr in his 1961 volume, What is History ?, argues that the inherent biases from the gathering of facts makes the objective truth of any historical perspective idealistic and impossible.

Historian and theorist Bryan Palmer argues that gender studies current reliance on post-structuralism — with its reification of discourse and avoidance of the structures of oppression and struggles of resistance — obscures the origins, meanings, and consequences of historical events and processes, and he seeks to counter the current gender studies with an argument for the necessity to analyze lived experience and the structures of subordination and power.

Trotsky argues: " All historical experience ... shows that the peasantry are absolutely incapable of taking up an independent political role.

James argues that in her extended description of this dream, Cleopatra “ reconstructs the heroic masculinity of an Antony whose identity has been fragmented and scattered by Roman opinion .” This politically charged dream vision is just one example of the way that Shakespeare ’ s version of the historical tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra destabilizes and potentially critiques the imperialist Roman ideology inherited from Virgil ’ s epic and embodied in the mythic Roman ancestor Aeneas.

Maier argues that sceptics have tended to " regard opinion as fact, and have largely avoided a careful historical search into the parameters of the problem ".

In contrast, in a concurrently published response, Clive Tolley argues that the term must have originated in historical usage, and as such " it is something of a misrepresentation of the evidence to suggest that Snorri is the main source for the vanir.

Toner ( 1981 ) argues that the assassination was an important historical marker in Irish Canadian history.

Bart Ehrman argues that the historical Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher, and that his apocalyptic beliefs are recorded in the earliest Christian documents: Mark and the authentic Pauline epistles.

Eliade argues that traditional man attributes no value to the linear march of historical events: only the events of the mythical age have value.