Explanations are about concepts and concept formation
(2007)- Abstract
- In this paper, I wish to argue that an explanation is not a logical structure¸ that it cannot be characterised in syntactic terms, but that it is rather an epistemological structure, and, more specifically, a structure organising conceptual content. I will start from a trivial example and systematically look at the effects of making premises more general or more specific or of reshuffling the same content into another set of premises, thereby exposing the implicit suppositions and consequences of some commonly held views and showing their untenability.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/992669
- author
- Hansson, Bengt LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- Rethinking Explanation
- editor
- Ylikoski, Petri and Persson, Johannes
- publisher
- Springer
- ISBN
- 978-1-4020-5580-5
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 42c2dadf-ebc3-4ff9-87aa-f9841872789a (old id 992669)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 11:35:44
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:05:53
@inbook{42c2dadf-ebc3-4ff9-87aa-f9841872789a, abstract = {{In this paper, I wish to argue that an explanation is not a logical structure¸ that it cannot be characterised in syntactic terms, but that it is rather an epistemological structure, and, more specifically, a structure organising conceptual content. I will start from a trivial example and systematically look at the effects of making premises more general or more specific or of reshuffling the same content into another set of premises, thereby exposing the implicit suppositions and consequences of some commonly held views and showing their untenability.}}, author = {{Hansson, Bengt}}, booktitle = {{Rethinking Explanation}}, editor = {{Ylikoski, Petri and Persson, Johannes}}, isbn = {{978-1-4020-5580-5}}, language = {{eng}}, publisher = {{Springer}}, title = {{Explanations are about concepts and concept formation}}, year = {{2007}}, }