Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome | |||
| |||
Explanation: making a statement in relation to an event, a state, a change or an action that was described before by a deviating statement. The statement will often try to involve circumstances, history, logical premises, causes and causality. See also description, statements, theories, understanding, literal truth, best explanation, causality, cause, completeness._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
---|---|---|---|
N. Goodman on Explanation - Dictionary of Arguments
IV 165 Explanation: a basic term is not defined, but explained by means of its different varieties. >Definitions. --- II 67 Reduction sentences/Carnap: if we want to construct a language of science, we must take some descriptive (i.e. not logical) expressions as basic expressions. Other expressions can then be introduced by means of reduction sentences. >Reduction, >Reducibility, >Reductionism. II 68 GoodmanVsCarnap/reduction sentences: [the whole thing is] pretty absurd (...) in my opinion. Philosophy has the task of explaining the science (and the everyday language), but not describing it. The explanation must refer to the pre-systematic use of the terms under consideration, but does not have to adhere to the ordering. It is all about economy and unification._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
G IV N. Goodman Catherine Z. Elgin Reconceptions in Philosophy and Other Arts and Sciences, Indianapolis 1988 German Edition: Revisionen Frankfurt 1989 Goodman I N. Goodman Ways of Worldmaking, Indianapolis/Cambridge 1978 German Edition: Weisen der Welterzeugung Frankfurt 1984 Goodman II N. Goodman Fact, Fiction and Forecast, New York 1982 German Edition: Tatsache Fiktion Voraussage Frankfurt 1988 Goodman III N. Goodman Languages of Art. An Approach to a Theory of Symbols, Indianapolis 1976 German Edition: Sprachen der Kunst Frankfurt 1997 |