Description |
1 online resource |
Contents |
Approaches to explanation -- Causal and explanatory relevance -- The kairetic account of difference-making -- The kairetic account of explanation -- Extending the kairetic account -- Event explanation and causal claims -- Regularity explanation -- Abstraction in regularity explanation -- Approaches to probabilistic explanation -- Kairetic explanation of frequencies -- Kairetic explanation of single outcomes -- Looking outward -- Looking inward |
Summary |
"What does it mean for scientists to truly understand, rather than to merely describe, how the world works? Michael Strevens proposes a novel theory of scientific explanation and understanding that overhauls and augments the familiar causal approach to explanation. What is replaced is the test for explanatorily relevant causal information: Strevens discards the usual criterion of counterfactual dependence in favor of a criterion that turns on a process of progressive abstraction away from a fully detailed, physical causal story. The augmentations include the introduction of a new, non-causal explanatory relevance relation - entanglement - and an independent theory of the role of black-boxing and functional specification in explanation." "The result is an account of explanation that has especially significant consequences for the higher-level sciences: biology, psychology, economics, and other social sciences."--Jacket |
Subject |
Causation.
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Explanation.
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Science -- Philosophy.
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Causation
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Explanation
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Science -- Philosophy
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Kausale Erklärung
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Naturwissenschaften
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Philosophie
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Wahrscheinlichkeit
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Wissenschaftstheorie
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Form |
Electronic book
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ISBN |
9780674260795 |
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0674260791 |
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