EXPLAINING WITH EQUILIBRIA68

Abstract

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.Part 1: Theory of ExplanationBengt Hansson Explanations are about concepts and concept formation, Henrik H{å}llsten, What to ask of an explanation-theory; Petri Ylikoski, The Idea of Contrastive Explanandum; Jan Faye, The Pragmatic-Rhetorical Theory of Explanation; Olav Gjelsvik, Causal explanation provides knowledge why; Stathis Psillos, Causal Explanation and manipulation; Erik Weber and Jeroen Van Bouwel, Assessing the Explanatory Power of Causal Explanations; Rebecca Schweder, Some Notes on Unificationism and Probabilistic ExplanationPart 2: Issues in ExplanationAlexander Bird, Selection and Explanation; Johannes Persson, IBE and EBI: on explanation before inference; Jaakko Kuorikoski, Explaining with Equilibria; Annika Wallin, Explanation and environment: the case of psychology; Mika Kiikeri and Tomi Kokkonen, Biological Notions of Innateness and Explanation of Language Acquisition; Robin Stenwall, Aspect kinds