Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation

537 Pages·2008·4.382 MB·English

by  Michael Strevens

Depth

Depth
An Account of Scientific Explanation
Michael Strevens
HarvardUniversityPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
Copyright©2008bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2011
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Strevens,Michael.
Depth:anaccountofscientificexplanation/MichaelStrevens.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN 978-0-674-03183-8(cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN 978-0-674-06257-3 (pbk.)
1.Causation. 2.Explanation. 3.Science–Philosophy. I.Title.
BD541.S772008
122—dc22
2008019211
Tomyparents

Contents
ListofFiguresandTable xi
Preface xiii
PartI. TheCausalApproachtoExplanation
1 ApproachestoExplanation 3
1.1 CausalExplanationandExplanatoryRelevance 3
1.2 Preliminaries 6
1.3 AccountsoftheExplanatoryRelation 11
1.4 TheCausalElementinExplanation 23
1.5 ThePursuitofExplanation 37
2 CausalandExplanatoryRelevance 41
2.1 TheMinimalCausalAccountofEventExplanation 41
2.2 TheProblemofRelevance 45
2.3 TheProbabilisticSolution 52
2.4 TheCounterfactualSolution 56
2.5 TheManipulationistSolution 60
PartII. TheKaireticAccountofExplanation
3 TheKaireticAccountofDifference-Making 69
3.1 OverviewoftheKaireticAccount 69
3.2 CausalModels 71
3.3 StatesofAffairs 84
3.4 TheEliminativeProcedure 86
3.5 AbstractionandOptimizing 96
3.6 Cohesion 101
viii Contents
3.7 TheOptimizingProcedure 109
3.8 RivalAccountsofDifference-MakingReconsidered 110
4 TheKaireticAccountofExplanation 117
4.1 StandaloneExplanation 117
4.2 Difference-Making and Transitivity in Compound
Explanations 121
4.3 ComparingStandaloneExplanations 123
4.4 LaplaceanBlindness 138
5 ExtendingtheKaireticAccount 142
5.1 QuantifyingExplanatoryRelevance 142
5.2 TradingOffAccuracyforGenerality 145
5.3 TheExplanatoryFramework 148
5.4 BlackBoxes,FunctionalProperties,andMultiple
Realizability 154
5.5 AggregativeExplanation 169
5.6 ContrastiveExplanation 174
5.7 BeyondCausalExplanation 177
6 EventExplanationandCausalClaims 181
6.1 BackgroundConditionsversusCauses 182
6.2 Preemption 186
6.3 NoneventsasDifference-Makers 200
6.4 NoneventsasExplananda 205
6.5 Transitivity 208
6.6 ThreeKindsofCausation 215
PartIII. ExplanationofLawsandRegularities
7 RegularityExplanation 219
7.1 ApproachestoRegularityExplanation 219
7.2 ExplainingLawswithMechanisms 222
7.3 BasingGeneralizations 228
Contents ix
7.4 PropertyLaws 265
7.5 OtherLaws 279
7.6 TheMetaphysicsofHighandLow 288
8 AbstractioninRegularityExplanation 297
8.1 ProblemsofAbstractioninRegularityExplanation 297
8.2 ExplainingBoyle’sLaw 304
8.3 ATheoryofIdealization 315
8.4 MathematicallyDrivenExplanation 329
PartIV. ProbabilisticExplanation
9 ApproachestoProbabilisticExplanation 335
9.1 ExplanatoryQuestions 335
9.2 VarietiesofProbabilisticExplanation:Examples 337
9.3 VarietiesofProbabilisticExplanation:Commentary 341
9.4 AccountsofProbabilisticExplanation 344
9.5 ElitismversusEgalitarianism 347
9.6 ProbabilityandDeterminism 355
9.7 FormalElementsoftheKaireticApproach 358
10 KaireticExplanationofFrequencies 367
10.1 ProbabilisticExplanationinDeterministicSystems 367
10.2 ExplanationwithComplexProbability 368
10.3 ExplanationwithQuasiprobability 401
10.4 ElitismversusEgalitarianismtheKaireticWay 412
10.5 RegularityExplanationandProbabilisticMetaphysics 418
11 KaireticExplanationofSingleOutcomes 424
11.1 Single-OutcomeExplanation 424
11.2 Robustness 433
11.3 NonexplanatoryProbability-Raisers 437
11.4 NonexplanatoryCriticalEvents 447
11.5 ElitismandEgalitarianismRevisited 452