Explanation beyond causation? New directions in the philosophy of scientific explanation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4079865 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexander Reutlinger (0000-0001-7638-6059, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2017-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1747-9991 • E-ISSN: 1747-9991 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/phc3.12395 |
| OpenAlex | W2547308655 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 26 |
| References cited | 38 |
In this paper, I aim to provide access to the current debate on non-causal explanations in philosophy of science. I will first present examples of non-causal explanations in the sciences. Then, I will outline three alternative approaches to non-causal explanations - that is, causal reductionism, pluralism, and monism - and, corresponding to these three approaches, different strategies for distinguishing between causal and non-causal explanation. Finally, I will raise questions for future research on non-causal explanations
Causal inference · Causal model · Causal structure · Causal theory of reference · Causation · Epistemology · Monism · Philosophy of science · Reductionism · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology · Science and Climate Studies
It ain't necessarily so
Are causal facts really explanatorily emergent? Ladyman and Ross on higher-level causal facts and renormalization group explanation
Asymmetry as a challenge to counterfactual accounts of non-causal explanation
The Teleological and Kalam Cosmological Arguments Revisited
A Miracle Creed
A Minimal Metaphysics for Scientific Practice
Explanation in Computational Neuroscience
Mathematical Explanation by Law
Explanation and the Right to Explanation
Picking up the gauntlet. A reply to Casper and Haueis
The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics
Constraints and Selection
Evolutionary Debunking Arguments, Explanationism and Counterexamples to Modal Security
Benardete paradoxes, patchwork principles, and the infinite past
The landscape and the multiverse
Inference, explanation, and asymmetry
Cognitive dynamical models as minimal models
Life, sense-making, and subjectivity. Why the enactive conception of life and mind requires phenomenology
Idealization, representation, and explanation in the sciences
How revealed preference theory can be explanatory
Hamilton's rule
Explanatory Relevance and Contrastive Explanation
Counterfactuals and Explanatory Pluralism
Does IBE Require a ‘Model’ of Explanation
Causal and non-causal explanations in theology
Explanation in mathematics
Laws and Symmetry
Making Things Happen
The Devil in the Details
Mathematics and Scientific Representation
Aspects of Scientific Explanation
How dimensional analysis can explain
Topological explanations and robustness in biological sciences
Minimal models and canonical neural computations
On (Some) Explanations in Physics
Is There A Monist Theory of Causal and Noncausal Explanations? The Counterfactual Theory of Scientific Explanation
Reassessing Woodward’s Account of Explanation
Thinking about Mechanisms
Really Statistical Explanations and Genetic Drift
Scientific Explanation between Principle and Constructive Theories
Minimal Model Explanations
Why Is There Universal Macrobehavior? Renormalization Group Explanation as Noncausal Explanation
Conservation Laws in Scientific Explanations
Mathematical Explanation in Science
Can Classical Structures Explain Quantum Phenomena
Abstract Explanations in Science
What Makes a Scientific Explanation Distinctively Mathematical
On Explanations from Geometry of Motion
Complements, Not Competitors
Multiple Realizability and Universality
Are There Non-Causal Explanations (of Particular Events)
The scientific image
A Field Guide to Mechanisms
| Unique citing works | 26 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,89 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 23 |