PHILOSOPHY 448     S10N01

The Philosophy of   Explanation: Explaining Explanation

     In this course we will examine the logic of explanation and the attempt within the discipline of philosophy to, first, develop an analysis of different forms of explanation and of what it means to explain something as distinct from merely describing it, and second, to develop criteria of adequacy for good explanation. Students will then apply these reflections to individually selected case studies of problems in other disciplines or other areas of philosophy. While there is a wide range of possibility here, from physics to literary criticism and including the social sciences, history and biology, topics will be restricted to those in which the explanatory/philosophical issues can be made clear to a general audience in a short presentation.

Here are examples of the core questions we will address: What is the difference between "explanation" and "description"?

What is the logical relationship between a statement of that which is to be explained and a statement of that which is claimed to explain it? Must all explanations of events be causal?

Here are examples of questions that may arise in application of these reflections: How, in Law, is attribution of responsibility connected to explanation of an event? Is it possible to give a correct explanation of an activity in another culture when you do not share the values, the precepts and the understanding of what the world is like common in that culture? While events in nature are routinely explained by appeal to laws of physics, can the laws themselves be explained or can they only be described? Given that nothing actually happens in a work of fiction, what, if anything, does explanation of a fictional story have in common in terms of logical requirements, with the explanation of a true story?

This will be a lecture/seminar course in which student application of philosophical analysis will take place in the context of shared readings and discussion.