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Micro-level model explanation and counterfactual constraint

Schindler, Samuel (2022) Micro-level model explanation and counterfactual constraint. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Relationships of counterfactual dependence have played a major role in recent debates of explanation and understanding in the philosophy of science. Usually, counterfactual dependencies have been viewed as the explanantia of explanation, i.e., the things providing explanation and understanding. Sometimes, however, counterfactual dependencies are themselves the targets of explanations in science. These kinds of explanations are the focus of this paper. I argue that “micro-level model explanations” explain the particular form of the empirical regularity underlying a counterfactual dependency by representing it as a physical necessity on the basis of postulated microscopic entities. By doing so, micro-level models rule out possible forms the regularity (and the associated counterfactual) could have taken. Micro-model explanations, in other words, constrain empirical regularities and their associated counterfactual dependencies. I introduce and illustrate micro-level model explanations in detail, contrast them to other accounts of explanation, and consider potential problems.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Schindler, Samuelsamuel.schindler@css.au.dk0000-0002-5656-9840
Additional Information: forthcoming in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science
Keywords: explanation, counterfactual dependence, micro-model, modality, necessity
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Explanation
Depositing User: Samuel Schindler
Date Deposited: 06 May 2022 15:52
Last Modified: 06 May 2022 15:52
Item ID: 20541
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Explanation
Date: April 2022
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20541

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