Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome | |||
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Causal explanation: A causal explanation provides a reason or justification for why a particular event or phenomenon occurs, focusing on the underlying causes and their relationship to the observed outcome. See also Causality, Causes, Effects._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
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Gerhard Schurz on Causal Explanation - Dictionary of Arguments
I 227 Causal explanation/Schurz: exists only if there is a natural law connection. No causal explanation: e.g. "All apples in this bag are red, therefore this apple is red". I.e. That this apple is (naturally) red is not an explanation why it is red. ((s) >Dennett: Wrong question: "Why is this car green?"). >Explanation/Dennett, >Why-questions, >Causality, >Laws of nature. Prediction/justification/Schurz: here law-likeness is not required. I 228 Ex "All apples in the bag are red": is a completely sufficient prediction or reason (just not an explanation). Causality/Explanation/Schurz: the majority of authors first tried to explicate the concept of explanation independently of causality. Vs: this does not meet the narrower concept of explanation. Schurz: supplying real reasons ((s) here: = cause) belongs to the core of the concept of event explanation. >Prediction._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Schu I G. Schurz Einführung in die Wissenschaftstheorie Darmstadt 2006 |