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Phenomenological understanding and electric eels

Gervais, Raoul (2017) Phenomenological understanding and electric eels. THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 32 (3). pp. 293-302. ISSN 2171-679X

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Abstract

Explanations are supposed to provide us with understanding. It is common to make a distinction between genuine, scientific understanding, and the phenomenological, or ‘aha’ notion of understanding, where the former is considered epistemically relevant, the latter irrelevant. I argue that there is a variety of phenomenological understanding that does play a positive epistemic role. This phenomenological understanding involves a similarity between bodily sensations that is used as evidence for mechanistic hypotheses. As a case study, I will consider 17th and 18th century research into the mechanism behind the electric eel’s power to shock.


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Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Gervais, RaoulRaoul.Gervais@uantwerpen.be
Additional Information: ISSN: 0495-4548 (print)
Keywords: Understanding; explanation; subjective; phenomenology; electric eels
Subjects: General Issues > Explanation
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
General Issues > Models and Idealization
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email theoria@ehu.es
Date Deposited: 25 Oct 2017 14:09
Last Modified: 25 Oct 2017 14:09
Item ID: 14060
Journal or Publication Title: THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science
Publisher: Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea / Universidad del País Vasco
Official URL: http://www.ehu.eus/ojs/index.php/THEORIA/article/v...
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1387/theoria.17294
Subjects: General Issues > Explanation
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
General Issues > Models and Idealization
Date: September 2017
Page Range: pp. 293-302
Volume: 32
Number: 3
ISSN: 2171-679X
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/14060

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