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Invisible-hand explanations

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This essay was written in memory of Yehoshua Bar-Hillel.

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Avishai Margalit for indefatigable help in advice, criticism, and ever-attentive listening. I also want to thank Robert Nozick who helped shape my ideas both through the pages of his book that deal with this subject and in conversations while this paper was being written; he also drew my attention to some of the items in the bibliography. Sidney Morgenbesser read the final version; his insightful comments and reservations led to the insertion of (- and are, I hope, adequately expressed by -) notes 1, 10 and 15. I am truly grateful to him.

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Ullmann-Margalit, E. Invisible-hand explanations. Synthese 39, 263–291 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00485077

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