Pragmatic Account of Explanation
Bas van Fraassen
–Anti-realist
Constructive empiricism
–Offers a pragmatic model of explanation
Description and explanation
It is often thought that there is a big difference between description and explanation.
–A good description must merely state the facts in an empirically adequate manner.
–A good explanation must be empirically adequate and provide understanding.
A good explanation has explanatory power in addition to being empirically accurate.
But what is this additional “explanatory power”?
–It cannot be a matter of empirical facts, for all of these are covered by description.
–But if it is not a matter of empirical facts, then it invokes mysterious relations.
•E.g., necessary vs. contingent relationships in nature, scientific vs. non-scientific explanations,
etc.
Explanations are essentially descriptions
There is no evidence that explanations have an extra-empirical component.
–If you ask a scientist for an explanation, the information she gives you is no different in kind
from the kind of information she gives when asked for a description.
–The same goes in everyday explanations.
–Scientific explanations are just explanations using scientific information. They are no different
in form or kind from everyday explanations.
Explanations are context-dependent
It is wrong to think that explanation is a relation between a (scientific) theory and fact.
Rather, it is a relation between theory, fact, and context.
–An explanation is an answer to a question.
The information requested by a question depends on our interests.
–We ask for a part of the full description which we do not know and which is important to us for
some reason.
–This is why a same answer to the same question can be illuminating for someone and not for
others.
Example
Why did the car crashed?
–Police officer: the driver was driving too fast.
–Meteorologist: it was raining and the street was wet.
–Civil engineer: the turn is too sharp at this place.
–Mechanics: the tires were too old and worn.
In short…
Explanation are just (partial) descriptions.
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