Repository | Book | Chapter
(1991) Existence and explanation, Dordrecht, Springer.
Why ask "Why?' Whence our drive for explanation? This is a bewildering question because it is hard to see what an answer might look like. I well remember having learnt in undergraduate courses that explanation is the supreme goal of science. So who would dare ask for more? Some fortunately did.1 One prominent answer is that (scientific) explanation yields (scientific) understanding; and surely, we want to understand things. It is this answer which this paper is about.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-3244-2_12
Full citation:
Spohn, W. (1991)., A reason for explanation: explanations provide stable reasons, in W. Spohn, B. Skyrms & B. C. Van Fraassen (eds.), Existence and explanation, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 165-196.