Explanation
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Explanation | |
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| Type | Philosophical and scientific concept |
| Field | Philosophy of science; Epistemology |
| Core idea | Account that clarifies why or how a phenomenon occurs |
| Assumptions | Phenomena can be rendered intelligible; relations of dependence can be articulated |
| Status | Established concept |
| Related | Causation; Understanding; Scientific explanation; Inference |
Explanation is a philosophical and scientific concept referring to an account that clarifies why or how a phenomenon occurs. To explain something is to situate it within a structure of reasons, causes, principles, or mechanisms that render it intelligible.
Explanation plays a central role in science, philosophy, and everyday reasoning, but its nature and standards vary across contexts and disciplines.
Core idea
At its core, explanation aims at intelligibility. An explanation answers a why-question or how-question by showing how a phenomenon depends on other factors, such as causes, laws, mechanisms, or reasons.
Explanations need not be exhaustive; they may abstract away from details to highlight what is relevant in a given context.
Explanation and understanding
Explanation is closely related to understanding. To understand a phenomenon is often to grasp an explanation of it, though understanding may also involve skills, familiarity, or perspective.
Philosophers debate whether explanation is primarily objective, involving relations in the world, or subjective, involving cognitive uptake by an explainer or audience.
Causal explanation
Causal explanations account for phenomena by identifying causes and causal processes. These explanations trace how earlier events or conditions brought about later outcomes.
Causal explanation is central in many sciences, but not all explanations are causal.
Law-based explanation
Some explanations appeal to general laws or principles. On this approach, phenomena are explained by showing how they follow from laws together with initial conditions.
Law-based explanations emphasize regularity and predictability but may overlook causal mechanisms.
Mechanistic explanation
Mechanistic explanations focus on underlying structures and processes that generate phenomena. They describe how components interact to produce observed behavior.
This form of explanation is common in biology, neuroscience, and engineering.
Statistical explanation
In contexts involving variability or uncertainty, explanations may be statistical. Such explanations show how phenomena arise with certain probabilities under specified conditions.
Statistical explanation does not identify sufficient causes but characterizes patterns of dependence.
Explanatory relevance
A central issue concerns what makes an explanation relevant. Explanatory relevance involves selecting factors that genuinely contribute to the phenomenon, rather than merely correlating with it.
This selection depends on context, interests, and background assumptions.
Explanation and prediction
Explanation and prediction are closely related but not identical. Some explanations enable prediction, while others explain without allowing precise prediction.
Conversely, predictive success does not guarantee explanatory adequacy.
Explanation and inference
Explanations often function as outputs of inference. In abductive reasoning, hypotheses are selected because they provide good explanations of observed facts.
This connection highlights the role of explanation in theory choice and justification.
Limits and disagreement
There is no single accepted theory of explanation. Disagreement persists over the role of causation, laws, mechanisms, and understanding.
Different sciences and practices employ different explanatory standards.
Status
Explanation is an established but philosophically rich concept. Its analysis clarifies how phenomena are rendered intelligible and how knowledge claims are supported across domains.