The Causal Economy Approach to Scientific Explanation
Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science (forthcoming)
Abstract
This paper sketches a causal account of scientific explanation designed to sustain the judgment that high-level, detail-sparse explanations—particularly those offered in biology—can be at least as explanatorily valuable as lower-level counterparts. The motivating idea is that complete explanations maximize causal economy: they cite those aspects of an event’s causal run-up that offer the biggest-bang-for-your-buck, by costing less (in virtue of being abstract) and delivering more (in virtue making the event stable or robust).
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Archival date: 2019-02-19
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2019-02-19
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134 ( #33,575 of 56,922 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
28 ( #27,574 of 56,922 )
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