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Single Idea 16822
[filed under theme 14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / b. Aims of explanation
]
Full Idea
One of the points of our obsessive search for explanations is that this is a peculiarly effective way of discovering the structure of the world.
Gist of Idea
Seaching for explanations is a good way to discover the structure of the world
Source
Peter Lipton (Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd) [2004], 04 'Attractions')
Book Ref
Lipton,Peter: 'Inference to the Best Explanation (2nd ed)' [Routledge 2004], p.66
A Reaction
This remark is a nice corrective to the sceptical view that explanations are entirely subjective, pragmatic, and even conventional. Whether this means that there are 'real' and 'objective' explanations is another matter.
Related Idea
Idea 18860
A truthmaker is the minimal portion of reality that will do the job [Tallant]
The
26 ideas
with the same theme
[what explanations are trying to achieve]:
17085
|
A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required)
[Plato, by Ruben]
|
11289
|
Understanding moves from the less to the more intelligible
[Aristotle]
|
5080
|
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]
|
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
|
Explanation and understanding are the same
[Wittgenstein]
|
13046
|
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]
|
15306
|
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
|
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]
|
6517
|
If all possibilities are equal, order seems (a priori) to need an explanation - or does it?
[Robinson,H]
|
6515
|
An explanation presupposes something that is improbable unless it is explained
[Robinson,H]
|
9487
|
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]
|