Back to Search
Start Over
Unification and Explanation: Explanation as a Prototype Concept. A Reply to Weber and van Dyck, Gijsbers, and de Regt.
- Source :
-
Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History & Foundations of Science . Jan2014, Vol. 29 Issue 1, p57-70. 14p. - Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- In this paper I investigate unification as a virtue of explanation. In the first part of the paper (sec. 1-2) I give a brief exposition of the unification account of Schurz and Lambert (1994) and Schurz (1999). I illustrate the advantages of this account in comparison to the older unification accounts of Friedman (1974) and Kitcher (1981). In the second part (sec. 3) I discuss several comments and objections to the Schurz- Lambert account that were raised by Weber and van Dyck (2002), Gijsbers (2007) and de Regt (2005). In the third and final part (sec. 4), I argue that explanation should be understood as a prototype concept which contains nomic expectability, causality and unification as prototypical virtues of explanations, although none of these virtues provides a sufficient and necessary "defining condition" of explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 04954548
- Volume :
- 29
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History & Foundations of Science
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 94601409
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1387/theoria.8729