Explanations in Software Engineering: The Pragmatic Point of View [Book Review]
Minds and Machines 20 (2):277-289 (2010)
Abstract
This article reveals that explanatory practice in software engineering is in accordance with pragmatic explanatory pluralism, which states that explanations should at least partially be evaluated by their practical use. More specifically, I offer a defense of the idea that several explanation-types are legitimate in software engineering, and that the appropriateness of an explanation-type depends on (a) the engineer’s interests, and (b) the format of the explanation-seeking question he asks, with this format depending on his interests. This idea is defended by considering examples that are representative for explanatory practice in software engineering. Different kinds of technological explanation are spelled out, and the dependence of their appropriateness on interests and question-formats is extensively illustratedDOI
10.1007/s11023-010-9190-2
My notes
Similar books and articles
Free software and the economics of information justice.S. Chopra & S. Dexter - 2011 - Ethics and Information Technology 13 (3):173-184.
Not all codes are created equal: The software engineering code of ethics, a success story. [REVIEW]Don Gotterbarn - 1999 - Journal of Business Ethics 22 (1):81 - 89.
Problems for a Philosophy of Software Engineering.Stefan Gruner - 2011 - Minds and Machines 21 (2):275-299.
Indispensability arguments in favour of reductive explanations.Jeroen Van Bouwel, Erik Weber & Leen De Vreese - 2011 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 42 (1):33-46.
A practical guide to ethical research involving humans.Norman G. Vinson & Janice A. Singer - 2008 - In Cogprints.
The uniqueness of software errors and their impact on global policy.Don Gotterbarn - 1998 - Science and Engineering Ethics 4 (3):351-356.
Ethical issues in empirical studies of software engineering.Janice A. Singer & Norman G. Vinson - forthcoming - Philosophical Explorations.
Analytics
Added to PP
2009-06-07
Downloads
642 (#14,487)
6 months
1 (#454,876)
2009-06-07
Downloads
642 (#14,487)
6 months
1 (#454,876)
Historical graph of downloads
Citations of this work
What do we want from Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)? – A stakeholder perspective on XAI and a conceptual model guiding interdisciplinary XAI research.Markus Langer, Daniel Oster, Timo Speith, Lena Kästner, Kevin Baum, Holger Hermanns, Eva Schmidt & Andreas Sesing - 2021 - Artificial Intelligence 296 (C):103473.
A pragmatic account of mechanistic artifact explanation.Jan De Winter - 2011 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 42 (4):602-609.
References found in this work
The Scientific Image.William Demopoulos & Bas C. van Fraassen - 1982 - Philosophical Review 91 (4):603.
The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation.John Leslie Mackie - 1974 - Oxford, England: Oxford, Clarendon Press.
The Common Mind: An Essay on Psychology, Society, and Politics.Philip Pettit - 1993 - Oxford University Press.
The cement of the universe, a study of causation.J. Mackie - 1975 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 165 (2):179-179.
The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation.J. L. Mackie - 1975 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 26 (4):353-355.