Explicar y contrastar

Abstract

It is usually held that one distinction can account for the role that concepts play in a theory regarding both test and explanation. We will demonstrate that this assumption is incorrect. On the one hand, there is no reason to think that this coincidence should exist. On the other, this is not the case, as we will show analysing several examples. The testing basis of a theory does not have to coincide with the explanandum of the theory. To defend this point we will endorse the metatheoretical structuralism. In addition, we will consider some repercussions that this discussion has for the assumed metatheoretical framework.