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  1. A logic of knowing why.Chao Xu, Yanjing Wang & Thomas Studer - 2021 - Synthese 198 (2):1259-1285.
    When we say “I know why he was late”, we know not only the fact that he was late, but also an explanation of this fact. We propose a logical framework of “knowing why” inspired by the existing formal studies on why-questions, scientific explanation, and justification logic. We introduce the Kyi\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${{\mathcal {K}}{}\textit{y}}_i$$\end{document} operator into the language of epistemic logic to express “agent i knows why φ\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} (...)
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  • Scientific explanation: Conclusiveness conditions on explanation-seeking questions.Matti Sintonen - 2005 - Synthese 143 (1-2):179 - 205.
  • Ambiguity and explanation.Jonathan L. Shaheen - 2017 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 60 (8):839-866.
    This paper presents evidence that ‘because’ is importantly ambiguous between two closely related senses covering what are usually called causal explanations, on the one hand, and grounding or metaphysical explanations, on the other hand. To this end, it introduces the lexical categories of monosemy, polysemy and homonymy; describes a test for polysemy; and discusses the results of the test when applied to ‘because’. It also shows how to understand so-called hybrid explanations in light of the semantic facts established by the (...)
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  • Explanations in science and the logic of why-questions: Discussion of the halonen–hintikka-approachand alternative proposal.Gerhard Schurz - 2005 - Synthese 143 (1-2):149 - 178.
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  • Mathematical explanation and the theory of why-questions.David Sandborg - 1998 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (4):603-624.
    Van Fraassen and others have urged that judgements of explanations are relative to why-questions; explanations should be considered good in so far as they effectively answer why-questions. In this paper, I evaluate van Fraassen's theory with respect to mathematical explanation. I show that his theory cannot recognize any proofs as explanatory. I also present an example that contradicts the main thesis of the why-question approach—an explanation that appears explanatory despite its inability to answer the why-question that motivated it. This example (...)
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  • Romeo, René, and the reasons why: What explanation is.C. S. Jenkins - 2008 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 108 (1pt1):61-84.
  • What was Aristotle doing in his early logic, anyway? A reply to Woods and Hansen.Jaakko Hintikka - 1997 - Synthese 113 (2):241-249.
  • Interpolation as explanation.Jaakko Hintikka & Ilpo Halonen - 1999 - Philosophy of Science 66 (3):423.
    A (normalized) interpolant I in Craig's theorem is a kind of explanation why the consequence relation (from F to G) holds. This is because I is a summary of the interaction of the configurations specified by F and G, respectively, that shows how G follows from F. If explaining E means deriving it from a background theory T plus situational information A and if among the concepts of E we can separate those occurring only in T or only in A, (...)
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  • Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing? A Logical Investigation.Jan Heylen - 2017 - Erkenntnis 82 (3):531-559.
    From Leibniz to Krauss philosophers and scientists have raised the question as to why there is something rather than nothing. Why-questions request a type of explanation and this is often thought to include a deductive component. With classical logic in the background only trivial answers are forthcoming. With free logics in the background, be they of the negative, positive or neutral variety, only question-begging answers are to be expected. The same conclusion is reached for the modal version of the Question, (...)
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  • Unification – it's magnificent but is it explanation?Ilpo Halonen & Jaakko Hintikka - 1999 - Synthese 120 (1):27-47.
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  • Toward a Theory of the Process of Explanation.Ilpo Halonen & Jaakko Hintikka - 2005 - Synthese 143 (1-2):5-61.
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  • How why-interrogatives work.Ryan Cox - 2019 - Synthese 198 (5):4651-4688.
    How do why-interrogatives work? How do they express the questions they express, in the contexts in which they express them? In this essay, I argue that, at a fundamental level, why-interrogatives work just like other wh-interrogatives, particularly other adjunct wh-interrogatives, and they express the questions they express, in the contexts in which they express them, by the same means that other wh-interrogatives do. These conclusions go against a trend in recent work on why-interrogatives, which holds that they are syntactically and (...)
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  • The interrogative model: Historical inquiry and explanation.Eric Brook - 2007 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 1 (2):137-159.
    This article commends Jaakko Hintikka's interrogative model of reasoning as an aid to historiography in relation to historical inquiry and explanation. After an initial discussion of David Hackett Fischer's appeal to the "logic of historical thought" in terms of his overlapping complementary emphases with Hintikka's interrogative model, a critical evaluation is given of Fischer's brief but strong comments regarding the role of why-questions in historical explanation. From there the main part of the article is given over to how the interrogative (...)
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  • Selection and explanation.Alexander Bird - 2006 - In Rethinking Explanation. Springer. pp. 131--136.
    Selection explanations explain some non-accidental generalizations in virtue of a selection process. Such explanations are not particulaizable - they do not transfer as explanations of the instances of such generalizations. This is unlike many explanations in the physical sciences, where the explanation of the general fact also provides an explanation of its instances (i.e. standard D-N explanations). Are selection explanations (e.g. in biology) therefore a different kind of explanation? I argue that to understand this issue, we need to see that (...)
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  • ¿Cuándo preguntar "¿por qué?"?: Observaciones sobre la dinámica de las preguntas y respuestas en una investigación científica.Eleonora Cresto - 2007 - Análisis Filosófico 27 (2):101-117.
    En este trabajo argumento a favor de la idea de que una explicación científica es una respuesta a una pregunta, aunque no necesariamente a una pregunta-por-qué. Esto no quiere decir que las preguntas-por-qué no sean elementos fundamentales de toda investigación científica: su importancia radica en que son capaces de organizar y sistematizar un conjunto dado de creencias. Para justificar esta afirmación, comienzo por identificar tres estadios básicos en los cuales pueden surgir preguntas-por-qué, y luego procedo a caracterizar su estructura. Muestro (...)
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