Explaining explanation / David-Hillel Ruben.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ruben, David-Hillel.

Series:

Problems of philosophy (Routledge (Firm))

The problems of philosophy : their past and present

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Knowledge, Theory of.

Explanation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1992, c1990.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book introduces readers to the topic of explanation. The insights of Plato, Aristotle, J.S. Mill and Carl Hempel are examined, and are used to argue against the view that explanation is merely a problem for the philosophy of science. Having established its importance for understanding knowledge in general, the book concludes with a bold and original explanation of explanation.

Contents:

Cover; Explaining Explanation; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Preface and Acknowledgements; I Getting our Bearings; Some explanations; Process and product; The methodology of explaining explanation; Restricting the scope of the analysis; Scientific and ordinary explanation; Partial and full explanation; Bad explanations and no explanations; Some terminology; Theories of explanation; Dispensing with contrastives; II Plato on Explanation; The Phaedo; Platonic explanantia and explananda; Problems for the physical explainers; Some terminology; Plato's Principles; Plato's (PP2)

Plato's (PP1)The Theaetetus; Summary; III Aristotle on Explanation; The doctrine of the four causes; Does Aristotle have a general account of explanation?; Incidental and per se causes; Necessitation and laws in explanation; Aristotle on scientific explanation; Aristotle's demonstrations; Summary; IV Mill and Hempel on Explanation; Mill's account: laws of coexistence and succession; Mill's account: the symmetry thesis; Mill on ultimate explanations; Mill on deduction and explanation; Hempel's account of scientific explanation; Hempel's methodology; Hempel on the symmetry thesis

Hempel on inductive-statistical explanationHempel on epistemic ambiguity; Summary; V The Ontology of Explanation; Explanation and epistemology; Extensionality and the slingshot; The relata of the explanation relation; Explaining facts; The non-extensionality of facts; Facts: worldly or wordy?; The co-typical predicate extensionality of facts; The name transparency of facts; VI Arguments, Laws, and Explanation; The standard counterexamples: irrelevance; The standard counterexamples: symmetry; A proposed cure and its problems: the causal condition; Generalizations get their revenge

VII A Realist Theory of ExplanationAre all singular explanations causal explanations?; What would make an explanation non-causal?; Identity and explanation; Are there other non-causal singular explanations?; Disposition explanations; Again: determinative, high and low dependency explanations; Notes; Bibliography; Name Index; Subject Index

Notes:

First published in paperback 1992.

Series editor: Ted Honderich.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

1-134-88232-7

1-280-02580-8

0-203-16930-1

9780203169308

OCLC:

191662292