Explanatory Pluralism

This book proposes a new philosophical theory of scientific explanation by developing and defending the position of explanatory pluralism.

C. Mantzavinos (Author)

9781107128514, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 May 2016

234 pages, 12 b/w illus.
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.2 cm, 0.48 kg

'… an important antidote to the ontic conception of explanation that has recently plagued philosophy of science. … [It] refocuses the debate so as to highlight the cognitive and social elements of explanatory activity; it is an important and welcome addition to the literature.' Alexander Beard and Cory Wright, Analysis

Explaining phenomena is one of the main activities in which scientists engage. This book proposes a new philosophical theory of scientific explanation by developing and defending the position of explanatory pluralism with the help of the notion of 'explanatory games'. Mantzavinos provides a descriptive account of the explanatory activity of scientists in different domains and shows how they differ from commonsensical explanations offered in everyday life by ordinary people and also from explanations offered in religious contexts. He also shows how an evaluation and a critical appraisal of explanations put forward in different social arenas can take place on the basis of different values. Explanatory Pluralism provides solutions to all important descriptive and normative problems of the philosophical theory of explanation as illustrated in sophisticated case studies from economics and medicine, but also from mythology and religion.

1. Introduction
2. The wrong question: what is an explanation?
3. A brief outlook on the social sciences
4. Towards explanatory pluralism
5. The explanatory enterprise
6. The rules of the explanatory game
7. The plurality of explanatory games
8. Explanatory activity as problem solving activity
9. Explanatory rules as shared rules
10. Normative appraisal: a procedural conception
11. Explanatory methodology as technology
12. Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Social research & statistics [JHBC], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Research methods: general [GPS]