Rethinking explanation / edited by Johannes Persson and Petri Ylikoski.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Persson, Johannes.

Ylikoski, Petri.

Series:

Boston studies in the philosophy of science ; v. 252.

Boston studies in the philosophy of science ; v. 252

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Explanation.

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Physical Description:

xiv, 207 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht : Springer, 2007.

Summary:

The series Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science was conceived in the broadest framework of interdisciplinary and international concerns. Natural scientists, mathematicians, social scientists and philosophers have contributed to the series, as have historians and sociologists of science, linguists, psychologists, physicians, and literary critics.

Along with the principal collaboration of Americans, the series has been able to include works by authors from many other countries around the world. As European science has become world science, philosophical, historical, and critical studies of that science have become of universal interest as well.

The editors believe that philosophy of science should itself be scientific, hypothetical as well as self-consciously critical, humane as well as rational, sceptical and undogmatic while also receptive to discussion of first principles. One of the aims of Boston Studies, therefore, is to develop collaboration among scientists and philosophers. However, because of this merging, not only has the neat structure of classical physics changed, but, also, a variety of wide-ranging questions have been encountered. As a result, philosophy of science has become epistemological and historical: once the identification of scientific method with that of physics had been queried, not only did biology and psychology come under scrutiny, but so did history and the social sciences, particularly economics, sociology, and anthropology.

Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science looks into and reflects on all these interactions in an effort to understand the scientific enterprise from every-viewpoint.

Contents:

Part 1 Theory of Explanation 1

Explanations are about concepts and concept formation / Bengt Hansson 3

What to ask of an explanation-theory / Henrik Hallsten 13

The Idea of Contrastive Explanandum / Petri Ylikoski 27

The Pragmatic-Rhetorical Theory of Explanation / Jan Faye 43

Causal explanation provides knowledge why / Olav Gjelsvik 69

Causal Explanation and manipulation / Stathis Psillos 93

Assessing the Explanatory Power of Causal Explanations / Erik Weber, Jeroen Van Bouwel 109

Some Notes on Unificationism and Probabilistic Explanation / Rebecca Schweder 119

Part 2 Issues in Explanation 129

Selection and Explanation / Alexander Bird 131

IBE and EBI: on explanation before inference / Johannes Persson 137

Explaining with Equilibria / Jaakko Kuorikoski 149

Explanation and environment: the case of psychology / Annika Wallin 163

Biological Notions of Innateness and Explanation of Language Acquisition / Mika Kiikeri, Tomi Kokkonen 177

Aspect Kinds / Robin Stenwall 193.

ISBN:

9781402055805

1402055803

OCLC:

76852312