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Single Idea 15005
[filed under theme 14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / a. Explanation
]
Full Idea
Explanations must cite generalisations.
Gist of Idea
Explanations must cite generalisations
Source
Theodore Sider (Writing the Book of the World [2011], 07.13)
Book Ref
Sider,Theodore: 'Writing the Book of the World' [OUP 2011], p.139
A Reaction
I'm uneasy about this. Presumably some events have a unique explanation - a unique mechanism, perhaps. Language is inescapably general in its nature - which I take to be Aristotle's reason for agreeing the Sider. [Sider adds mechanisms on p.159]
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[general ideas about the concept of explanation]:
11385
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Universal principles are not primary beings, but particular principles are not universally knowable
[Aristotle]
|
12367
|
What is most universal is furthest away, and the particulars are nearest
[Aristotle]
|
12380
|
Universals are valuable because they make the explanations plain
[Aristotle]
|
12385
|
Are particulars explained more by universals, or by other particulars?
[Aristotle]
|
11243
|
Aristotelian explanations are facts, while modern explanations depend on human conceptions
[Aristotle, by Politis]
|
21473
|
All knowledge and explanation rests on the inexplicable
[Schopenhauer]
|
17086
|
Surprisingly, empiricists before Mill ignore explanation, which seems to transcend experience
[Mill, by Ruben]
|
15831
|
Explanations have states of affairs as their objects
[Chisholm]
|
8347
|
Explanations typically relate statements, not events
[Davidson]
|
14470
|
Explanatory exclusion: there cannot be two separate complete explanations of a single event
[Kim]
|
17081
|
Usually explanations just involve giving information, with no reference to the act of explanation
[Ruben]
|
11951
|
Hume allows interpolation, even though it and extrapolation are not actually valid
[Molnar]
|
16850
|
Explanation may describe induction, but may not show how it justifies, or leads to truth
[Lipton]
|
15005
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Explanations must cite generalisations
[Sider]
|
15692
|
People tend to be satisfied with shallow explanations
[Gelman]
|
6754
|
We talk both of 'people' explaining things, and of 'facts' explaining things
[Bird]
|
6752
|
The objective component of explanations is the things that must exist for the explanation
[Bird]
|
17324
|
'Because' can signal an inference rather than an explanation
[Liggins]
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