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The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics
We explore the prospects of a monist account of explanation for both non-causal explanations in science and pure mathematics. Our starting point is the counterfactual theory of explanation (CTE) for explanations in science, as advocated in the recent literature on explanation. We argue that, despite...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Springer Netherlands
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9296398/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35875699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10670-020-00273-w |
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author | Reutlinger, Alexander Colyvan, Mark Krzyżanowska, Karolina |
author_facet | Reutlinger, Alexander Colyvan, Mark Krzyżanowska, Karolina |
author_sort | Reutlinger, Alexander |
collection | PubMed |
description | We explore the prospects of a monist account of explanation for both non-causal explanations in science and pure mathematics. Our starting point is the counterfactual theory of explanation (CTE) for explanations in science, as advocated in the recent literature on explanation. We argue that, despite the obvious differences between mathematical and scientific explanation, the CTE can be extended to cover both non-causal explanations in science and mathematical explanations. In particular, a successful application of the CTE to mathematical explanations requires us to rely on counterpossibles. We conclude that the CTE is a promising candidate for a monist account of explanation in both science and mathematics. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9296398 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Springer Netherlands |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92963982022-07-21 The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics Reutlinger, Alexander Colyvan, Mark Krzyżanowska, Karolina Erkenntnis Original Research We explore the prospects of a monist account of explanation for both non-causal explanations in science and pure mathematics. Our starting point is the counterfactual theory of explanation (CTE) for explanations in science, as advocated in the recent literature on explanation. We argue that, despite the obvious differences between mathematical and scientific explanation, the CTE can be extended to cover both non-causal explanations in science and mathematical explanations. In particular, a successful application of the CTE to mathematical explanations requires us to rely on counterpossibles. We conclude that the CTE is a promising candidate for a monist account of explanation in both science and mathematics. Springer Netherlands 2020-05-30 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9296398/ /pubmed/35875699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10670-020-00273-w Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Original Research Reutlinger, Alexander Colyvan, Mark Krzyżanowska, Karolina The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics |
title | The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics |
title_full | The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics |
title_fullStr | The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics |
title_full_unstemmed | The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics |
title_short | The Prospects for a Monist Theory of Non-causal Explanation in Science and Mathematics |
title_sort | prospects for a monist theory of non-causal explanation in science and mathematics |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9296398/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35875699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10670-020-00273-w |
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