Rethinking Explanation

The nature of scientific explanation has been an important topic in philosophy of science for many years. This book highlights some of the conceptual problems that still need to be solved and points out a number of fresh philosophical ideas to explore. Anyone interested in causal and probabilistic explanation, explanation-seeking questions and contrastive explanations, inference to the best explanation, or explanations within the special sciences should find something of interest in this book.

Zusammenfassung
This volume is a product of the international research project Theory of Explanation, which was funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (NOS-HS). The project started in 2001 and operated for a period of three years by organizing a number of workshops on scientific explanation in Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland. The workshops included presentations by people involved in the project and by invited guests. Both groups are represented in this volume, which brings together some of the papers presented in these meetings. The central theme of the research project was scientific explanation, but it was approached from many different angles. This plurality of approaches is also visible in the present volume. The authors share a joint interest in explanation, but not the same theoretical or methodological assumptions. As a whole, this volume shows that, although the theory of explanation has been a major industry within philosophyof science, there are still both conceptual problems to be solved and fresh philosophical ideas to explore. The papers in this volume have been divided into two broad groups. Part 1 consists of papers dealing with general issues in the theory of explanation, while the papers in Part 2 focus on some more specific problems. Part 1: Theory of Explanation

Inhalt

THEORY OF EXPLANATION.- EXPLANATIONS ARE ABOUT CONCEPTS AND CONCEPT FORMATION.- WHAT TO ASK OF AN EXPLANATION-THEORY.- THE IDEA OF CONTRASTIVE EXPLANANDUM.- THE PRAGMATIC-RHETORICAL THEORY OF EXPLANATION.- CAUSAL EXPLANATION PROVIDES KNOWLEDGE WHY.- CAUSAL EXPLANATION AND MANIPULATION.- ASSESSING THE EXPLANATORY POWER OF CAUSAL EXPLANATIONS.- SOME NOTES ON UNIFICATIONISM AND PROBABILISTIC EXPLANATION.- ISSUES IN EXPLANATION.- SELECTION AND EXPLANATION.- IBE AND EBI.- EXPLAINING WITH EQUILIBRIA68.- EXPLANATION AND ENVIRONMENT.- BIOLOGICAL NOTIONS OF INNATENESS AND EXPLANATION OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.- ASPECT KINDS.