Explanation

The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be convenienty available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading. This volume presents a selection of the most important recent writings on the nature of explanation. It covers a broad range of topics from the philosophy of science to the central philosophical terrain of the theory of knowledge. This volume is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of philosophy taking courses on the theory of knowledge, and academics and students in the natural and social sciences who are investigating the philosophical foundations of their disciplines.Table of ContentExplanation in science and history - aspects of scientific explanation, Carl Hempel; Hempel's ambiguity, J. Alberto Coffa; scientific explanation and the causal structure of the world, Wesley Salmon; towards an Aristotelian theory of scientific explanation, B. Brody; on an Aristotelian model of scientific explanation, Timothy McCarthy; can there be a model of explanation?, Peter Achinstein; probability, explanation and information, Peter Railton; causal explanation, David Lewis; contrastive explanation, Peter Lipton; a theory of singular causal explanation, James Woodward; explanatory realism, causal realism and explanatory exclusion, Jaegwom Kim; the pragmatics of explanation, B.C. van Fraassen; van Fraassen on explanation, Philip Kitcher and Wesley C. Salmon; the pragmatic character of explanation, Peter Achinstein; explaining and explanation, Robert J. Matthews.