Functional explanation: A Debate z Debate on functional explanation in the social sciences y Assumption of institutional resilience and persistence in social system: Such a qualification or reservation can release social scientists of the burden ofproof oftracing the history of actual selection and evolution of the resilience of a social institution. Instead social scientists can simply base on a"virtual selection"assumption and focus on the accounting for the persistence of a given phenomenon.Functional explanation: A Debate z Debate on functional explanation in the social sciences y Assumption of institutional resilience and persistence in social system: … Such a qualification or reservation can release social scientists of the burden of proof of tracing the history of actual selection and evolution of the resilience of a social institution. Instead social scientists can simply base on a "virtual selection" assumption and focus on the accounting for the persistence of a given phenomenon