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Concretization, Explanation, and Mechanisms

Hindriks, Frank (2007) Concretization, Explanation, and Mechanisms. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Traditional accounts of explanation fail to illuminate the explanatory relevance of “models that are descriptively false” in the sense that the regularities they entail fail to obtain. In this paper, I propose an account of explanation, which I call ‘explanation by concretization’, that serves to explicate the explanatory relevance of such models. Starting from a highly abstract and idealized model, causal explanations of the absence of regularities are sought by adding complexity to the model or by concretizing it. Whether this process is successful depends on whether the abstractions and idealizations in the basic model succeed in isolating a mechanism, i.e. in representing how it operates when interfering factors are absent. This account is developed in the context of economics and contrasted to those of Daniel Hausman and Nancy Cartwright. I go on to provide an account of how unrealistic models can be used for providing understanding of the way mechanisms work.


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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Hindriks, Frank
Keywords: abstraction, idealization, concretization, explanation, understanding, mechanism, tendency, nomological machine, Nancy Cartwright, Daniel Hausman
Subjects: General Issues > Models and Idealization
Specific Sciences > Economics
General Issues > Explanation
Depositing User: Frank Hindriks
Date Deposited: 18 Sep 2007
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:15
Item ID: 3525
Subjects: General Issues > Models and Idealization
Specific Sciences > Economics
General Issues > Explanation
Date: 2007
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3525

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