Explanation and Understanding

<p>Science has multiple goals: to describe the world as it is now; to predict the future and to make inferences about the past. Science also aims to understand the world – to explain why it is the way it is. But what does it take to explain a phenomenon? How does science generate understanding and what does that take?</p><p>In this thorough and clearly written introduction to scientific explanation Arnon Levy explores the following problems and questions:</p><ul> <li>the background to the topic of scientific explanation particularly the questions of what an explanation is what makes a good explanation and why seek them in the first place</li> <li>empiricism about explanation: Hempel’s deductive-nomological model and its problems</li> <li>unificationism about explanation: must good scientific explanations fit into an overall ‘explanatory store’?</li> <li>causation and explanation: Lewis’s description-based model Woodward’s interventionist view and Strevens’s criterion of selection theory</li> <li>connections between explanation and understanding</li> <li>models idealization and explanation</li> <li>non-causal explanation and explanation in non-scientific contexts</li> <li>the nature of understanding.</li> </ul><p>Additional features such as chapter summaries suggestions for further reading and a glossary make this an excellent resource for students of philosophy of science metaphysics and epistemology.</p>