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Single Idea 21507

[filed under theme 14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / b. Aims of explanation ]

Full Idea

What theoretical scientific explanation aims at is an objective kind of insight that is achieved by a systematic unification, by exhibiting the phenomena as manifestations of common underlying structures and processes that conform to testable principles.

Gist of Idea

Scientific explanation aims at a unifying account of underlying structures and processes

Source

Carl Hempel (Philosophy of Natural Science [1967], p.83), quoted by Laurence Bonjour - The Structure of Empirical Knowledge 5.3

Book Ref

Bonjour,Laurence: 'The Structure of Empirical Knowledge' [Harvard 1985], p.99

A Reaction

This is a pretty good statement of scientific essentialism, and structures and processes are what I take Aristotle to have had in mind when he sought 'what it is to be that thing'. Structures and processes give stability and powers.

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]