Is There A Monist Theory of Causal and Noncausal Explanations? The Counterfactual Theory of Scientific Explanation

Reutlinger, Alexander (2016): Is There A Monist Theory of Causal and Noncausal Explanations? The Counterfactual Theory of Scientific Explanation. In: Philosophy of Science, Vol. 83, No. 5: pp. 733-745

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to develop a counterfactual theory of explanation (CTE). The CTE provides a monist framework for causal and noncausal explanations, according to which both causal and noncausal explanations are explanatory by virtue of revealing counterfactual dependencies between the explanandum and the explanans. I argue that the CTE is applicable to two paradigmatic examples of noncausal explanations: Euler's explanation and renormalization group explanations of universality.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP)
• ISSN: 0031-8248
• Language: English