Explanation through representation, and its limits
Journal title EPISTEMOLOGIA
Author/s Bas Van Fraassen
Publishing Year 2012 Issue 2012/1
Language English Pages 17 P. 30-46 File size 584 KB
DOI 10.3280/EPIS2012-001003
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Why-questions and how-possibly-questions are two common forms of explanation request. Answers to the former ones require factual assertions, but the latter ones can be answered by displaying a representation of the targeted phenomenon. However, in an extreme case, a representation could come accompanied by the assertion that it displays the only possible way a phenomenon could develop. Using several historical controversies concerning statistical modeling, it is argued that such cases must inevitably involve tacit or explicit empirical assumptions.
Keywords: Explanation, representation, synthetic a priori, model, probability, Buffon, Bertrand, Jaynes.
Bas Van Fraassen, Explanation through representation, and its limits in "EPISTEMOLOGIA" 1/2012, pp 30-46, DOI: 10.3280/EPIS2012-001003