Abstract
Explanations contribute to our understanding of the world byembedding phenomena into general nomic patterns that we recognize in the world. Manyof these patterns are, of course, causal ones, but the declaration as ``causal'' often fails to determinethe explanatory power of the pattern. More important is the systematization capacity and the empiricalcontent of the pattern or theory with respect to explanations. We can specify these parameters moreprecisely within the framework of the structuralist view of theories.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Balzer, W., C. U. Moulines, and J. D. Sneed: 1987, An Architectonic for Science,Reidel, Dordrecht.
Bartelborth, T.: 1988, Eine logische Rekonstruktion der klassischen Elektrodynamik, Peter Lang, Frankfurt.
Bartelborth, T.: 1993, 'Hierarchy versus Holism. A Structuralist View on General Relativity', Erkenntnis 39, 383–412.
Bartelborth, Thomas: 1996a, Begründungsstrategien. Ein Weg durch die analytische Erkenntnistheorie, Akademie Verlag, Berlin.
Bartelborth, T.: 1996b, 'Scientific Explanation', in W. Balzer and C. U. Moulines (eds), Structuralist Theory of Science. Focal Issues, New Results, de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 23–43.
Bartelborth, T.: 1999a, 'Coherence and Explanation', Erkenntnis 50, 209–224.
Bartelborth, T.: 1999b, 'Verstehen und Kohärenz. Ein Beitrag zur Methodologie der Sozialwissenschaften', Analyse und Kritik 21, 97–116.
Bartelborth, Thomas and Oliver Robert Scholz: 2000: 'Understanding Utterances and Other Actions', to appear in Günther Grewendorf and Georg Meggle (Hrsg.), Speech Acts, Mind and Social Reality, mentis, Paderborn.
Friedman, M.: 1974, 'Explanation and Scientific Understanding', The Journal of Philosophy 71, 1–19.
Gähde, U.: 1998, Theorie und Hypothese, Habilitationsschrift (unpublished), Bielefeld.
Hitchcock, C. R.: 1996: 'The Role of Contrast in Causal and Explanatory Claims', Synthese 107, 395–419.
Hitchcock, C. R.: 1999, 'Contrastive Explanation and the Demons of Determinism', Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 50, 585–612.
Kincaid, Harold: 1996, Philosophical Foundations of the Social Sciences: Analyzing Controversies in Social Research, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Kitcher, P.: 1976, 'Explanation, Conjunction and Unification', Journal of Philosophy 73, 207–212.
Kunda, Z. and P. Thagard: 1996, 'Forming Impressions from Stereotypes, Traits, and Behaviors: A Parallel-Constraint-Satisfaction Theory', Psychological Review 103, 284–308.
Lipton, P.: 1991, Inference to the Best Explanation, Routledge, London.
Medin, D. L.: 1989, 'Concepts and Conceptual Structure', American Psychologist 44, 1469–1481.
Murphy, G. L.: 2000, 'Explanatory Concepts', in F. C. Keil, and R. A. Wilson (eds), Explanation and Cognition, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, pp. 361–392.
Murphy, G. L. and D. L. Medin: 1985, 'The Role of Theories in Conceptual Coherence', Psychological Review 92, 289–316.
Nagel, E.: 1979, The Structure of Science. Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanations, Hackett Publishing Company, Cambridge.
Resnik, M.: 1997, Mathematics as a Science of Patterns, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Roberts, C.: 1996, The Logic of Historical Explanation, Pennsylvania State University Press.
Rosenberg, A.: 1992, Economics - Mathematical Politics or Science of Diminishing Returns?, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Salmon, W. C.: 1998, Causality and Explanation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Woodward, J.: 1997, 'Explanation, Invariance, and Intervention', Philosophy of Science 64 (Proceedings), S26–S41
Woodward, J.: 2000, 'Explanation and Invariance in the Special Sciences', Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 51, 197–254.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bartelborth, T. Explanatory Unification. Synthese 130, 91–108 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013827209894
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013827209894