Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:44:51.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Pragmatic Character of Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Pete Achinstein
Pete Achinstein*
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Some of those, including the present writer, who criticize standard models of explanation, such as Hempel's D-N model or Salmon's S-R model, do so on the grounds that explanation is a “pragmatic” or “contextual” concept—an idea which the standard models seem to reject. Yet the sense in which explanation is, or is not, pragmatic is not always made clear by the critics or champions of the models. Indeed, some critics and some champions may even mean different things by “pragmatic” or “contextual”. In this paper I want to try to clarify a sense in which explanations might reasonably be considered pragmatic, discuss a couple of theories that are or are not pragmatic in this sense, argue the advantages of a pragmatic account, and briefly note some consequences of this for those seeking models of explanation.

Type
Part VII. Scientific Explanation
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1984 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1984 , 1984 , pp. 274 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by 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

1

I am indebted to the National Science Foundation for support.

References

Achinstein, Peter (1983). The Nature of Explanation. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bromberger, Sylvain (1965). “An Approach to Explanation.”. In Analytic Philosophy. 2nd Ser. Edited by R.J. Butler. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Pages 72-105.Google Scholar
Geiger, H and Marsden, E (1909). “On a diffuse reflection of the apartides.” Proceedings of the Royal Society (A) 82: 495-500.Google Scholar
Hempel, Carl G (1965). Aspects of Scientific Explanation and Other Essays in the Philosophy of Science. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rutherford, E (1911). “The scattering of α and β particles by matter and the structure of the atom.” Philosophical Magazine 21: 669-688.Google Scholar
Thomson, J.J (1904). “On the structure of the atom - an investigation of the stability and periods of oscillation of a number of corpuscles arranged at equal intervals around the circumference of a circle; with application of the results to the theory of atomic structure.” Philosophical Magazine 7: 237-265.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, Bas (1980). The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar