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Full Idea
I shall make use of the admittedly imprecise notions of consilience, simplicity, analogy and fitting into a web of belief, or in short of 'coherence'.
Clarification
'consilience' is the convergence of varied evidence
Gist of Idea
Coherence is consilience, simplicity, analogy, and fitting into a web of belief
Source
J.J.C. Smart (Explanation - Opening Address [1990], p.06)
Book Ref
'Explanation and Its Limits', ed/tr. Knowles,Dudley [CUP 1990], p.6
A Reaction
Coherence sounds like a family of tests, rather than a single unified concept. I still like coherence, though.
Related Idea
Idea 17071 An explanation is better if it also explains phenomena from a different field [Smart]
| 17061 | Explanation of a fact is fitting it into a system of beliefs [Smart] |
| 17062 | If scientific explanation is causal, that rules out mathematical explanation [Smart] |
| 17063 | Unlike Newton, Einstein's general theory explains the perihelion of Mercury [Smart] |
| 17070 | Coherence is consilience, simplicity, analogy, and fitting into a web of belief [Smart] |
| 17072 | We need comprehensiveness, as well as self-coherence [Smart] |
| 17071 | An explanation is better if it also explains phenomena from a different field [Smart] |
| 17073 | I simply reject evidence, if it is totally contrary to my web of belief [Smart] |
| 17074 | Explanations are bad by fitting badly with a web of beliefs, or fitting well into a bad web [Smart] |
| 17075 | Scientific explanation tends to reduce things to the unfamiliar (not the familiar) [Smart] |
| 17076 | Deducing from laws is one possible way to achieve a coherent explanation [Smart] |
| 17077 | The height of a flagpole could be fixed by its angle of shadow, but that would be very unusual [Smart] |
| 17078 | Universe expansion explains the red shift, but not vice versa [Smart] |