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Single Idea 16807
[filed under theme 14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / b. Aims of explanation
]
Full Idea
According to the reason model of explanation, to explain a phenomenon is to give a reason to believe that the phenomenon occurs.
Gist of Idea
An explanation gives the reason the phenomenon occurred
Source
Peter Lipton (Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd) [2004], 02 'Reason')
Book Ref
Lipton,Peter: 'Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd ed)' [Routledge 2004], p.23
A Reaction
[He cites Hempel 1965] Put like that, it doesn't sound very promising. Personally I believe things occur if my wife tells me they do, because I trust her. Lipton says knowing that it occurs is not understanding why it occurs.
The
26 ideas
with the same theme
[what explanations are trying to achieve]:
17085
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A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required)
[Plato, by Ruben]
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11289
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Understanding moves from the less to the more intelligible
[Aristotle]
|
5080
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We know a thing if we grasp its first causes, principles and basic elements
[Aristotle]
|
1686
|
What we seek and understand are facts, reasons, existence, and identity
[Aristotle]
|
1689
|
Explanation is of the status of a thing, inferences to it, initiation of change, and purpose
[Aristotle]
|
16736
|
Explanation is generally to deduce it from something better known, which comes in degrees
[Boyle]
|
7139
|
Explanation is just showing the succession of things ever more clearly
[Nietzsche]
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13048
|
Good explications are exact, fruitful, simple and similar to the explicandum
[Carnap, by Salmon]
|
18720
|
Explanation gives understanding by revealing the full multiplicity of the thing
[Wittgenstein]
|
18721
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Explanation and understanding are the same
[Wittgenstein]
|
13046
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Scientific explanation is not reducing the unfamiliar to the familiar
[Salmon]
|
13058
|
Why-questions can seek evidence as well as explanation
[Salmon]
|
21507
|
Scientific explanation aims at a unifying account of underlying structures and processes
[Hempel]
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15306
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Only changes require explanation
[Harré/Madden]
|
12314
|
Audience-relative explanation, or metaphysical explanation based on information?
[Stanford]
|
12313
|
Explanation is for curiosity, control, understanding, to make meaningful, or to give authority
[Stanford]
|
15559
|
Does a good explanation produce understanding? That claim is just empty
[Lewis]
|
16807
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An explanation gives the reason the phenomenon occurred
[Lipton]
|
16808
|
An explanation is what makes the unfamiliar familiar to us
[Lipton]
|
16806
|
An explanation is what is added to knowledge to yield understanding
[Lipton]
|
16822
|
Seaching for explanations is a good way to discover the structure of the world
[Lipton]
|
6515
|
An explanation presupposes something that is improbable unless it is explained
[Robinson,H]
|
6517
|
If all possibilities are equal, order seems (a priori) to need an explanation - or does it?
[Robinson,H]
|
9487
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We can't reject all explanations because of a regress; inexplicable A can still explain B
[Bird]
|
17393
|
Scientists eventually seek underlying explanations for every pattern
[Scerri]
|
17317
|
A good explanation captures the real-world dependence among the phenomena
[Koslicki]
|