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Full Idea
Some philosophers focus on the so-called 'pragmatics of explanation' - that an explanation is an answer to a 'why' question, and the relevant answer will depend on the presuppositions or interests of the questioner.
Clarification
Pragmatics concern how things actually work
Gist of Idea
Maybe explanation is entirely relative to the interests and presuppositions of the questioner
Source
Stathis Psillos (Causation and Explanation [2002], Intro)
Book Ref
Psillos,Stathis: 'Causation and Explanation' [Acumen 2002], p.16
A Reaction
This seems to me right. Explanation is an entirely human business, not a feature of nature, and most explanations will track back to the big bang if you have the patience, but they always terminate because of pragmatic considerations. But fobbing off?
| 15492 | Explanations are mind-dependent, theory-laden, and interest-relative [Martin,CB] |
| 17084 | You can't decide which explanations are good if you don't attend to the interest-relative aspects [Putnam] |
| 12768 | We accept many scientific theories without endorsing them as true [Fraassen] |
| 13066 | An explanation is just descriptive information answering a particular question [Fraassen, by Salmon] |
| 17089 | Facts explain facts, but only if they are conceptualised or named appropriately [Ruben] |
| 14324 | Ontology is unrelated to explanation, which concerns modes of presentation and states of knowledge [Mumford] |
| 4404 | Maybe explanation is entirely relative to the interests and presuppositions of the questioner [Psillos] |
| 4803 | An explanation is the removal of the surprise caused by the event [Psillos] |
| 6751 | Maybe explanation is so subjective that it cannot be a part of science [Bird] |