Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T03:19:46.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Explanation as Condition Satisfaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Paul Humphreys
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is shown that three common conditions for scientific explanations are violated by a widely used class of domain-independent explanations. These explanations can accommodate both complex and noncomplex systems and do not require the use of detailed models of system-specific processes for their effectiveness, although they are compatible with such model-based explanations. The approach also shows how a clean separation can be maintained between mathematical representations and empirical content.

Type
Complex Systems
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 81 , Issue 5 , December 2014 , pp. 1103 - 1116
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article were provided by audiences at the PSA 2012 meeting and the University of Bielefeld. Conversations and correspondence with Mark Bedau, James Cargile, Meinard Kuhlmann, Margaret Morrison, Charles Rathkopf, and members of an informal University of Virginia seminar on mathematical models were also important.

References

Baker, Alan. 2005. “Are There Genuine Mathematical Explanations of Physical Phenomena?” Mind 114:223–38.10.1093/mind/fzi223CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedau, Mark. 2014. “Testing Bottom-Up Models of Complex Citation Networks.” Philosophy of Science, in this issue.10.1086/677700CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Challet, Damien, Marsili, Matteo, and Zhang, Yi-Cheng. 2001. “Stylized Facts of Financial Markets and Market Crashes in Minority Games.” Physica A 294:514–24.Google Scholar
Cristelli, M., Pietronero, M. L., and Zaccaria, A.. 2011. “Critical Overview of Agent-Based Models for Economics.” ArXiv, Cornell University. http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.1847.Google Scholar
Humphreys, Paul. 2000. Review of Causality and Explanation, by Salmon, Wesley C.. Journal of Philosophy 97:523–27.Google Scholar
Salmon, Wesley C. 2004. Extending Ourselves. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Salmon, Wesley C. 2008. “Probability Theory and Its Models.” In Probability and Statistics: Essays in Honor of David A. Freedman, ed. Speed, Terry and Nolan, Deborah, 1–11. Beachwood, OH: Institute of Mathematical Statistics.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip. 1989. “Explanatory Unification and the Causal Structure of the World.” In Scientific Explanation, ed. Kitcher, P. and Salmon, W., 410–505. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 13. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Kuhlmann, Meinard. 2011. “Mechanisms in Dynamically Complex Systems.” In Causality in the Sciences, ed. Illari, P. McKay, Russo, F., and Williamson, J., 880–906. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199574131.003.0041CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Illari, P. McKay, Russo, F., and Williamson, J. 2014. “Explaining Financial Markets in Terms of Complex Systems.” Philosophy of Science, in this issue.Google Scholar
Lux, Thomas, and Marchesi, Michele. 1999. “Scaling and Criticality in a Stochastic Multi-Agent Model of a Financial Market.” Nature 397:498–500.10.1038/17290CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolan, J. P. 2013. “Stable Distributions: Models for Heavy Tailed Data.” Unpublished manuscript, Mathematics and Statistics Department, American University. http://academic2.american.edu/˜jpnolan/stable/chap1.pdf.Google Scholar
Railton, Peter. 1981. “Probability, Explanation, and Information.” Synthese 48:233–56.10.1007/BF01063889CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, James. 2000. “Explanation and Invariance in the Special Sciences.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51:197–254.10.1093/bjps/51.2.197CrossRefGoogle Scholar