Depth

An Account of Scientific Explanation

Michael Strevens

      The Causal Approach to Explanation

      1. Approaches to Explanation

    1. Causal Explanation and Explanatory Relevance
    2. Preliminaries
    3. Accounts of the Explanatory Relation
    4. The Causal Element in Explanation
    5. The Pursuit of Explanation

    2. Causal and Explanatory Relevance

    1. The Minimal Causal Account of Event Explanation
    2. The Problem of Relevance
    3. The Probabilistic Solution
    4. The Counterfactual Solution
    5. The Manipulationist Solution

    The Kairetic Account of Explanation

    3. The Kairetic Account of Difference-Making

    1. Overview of the Kairetic Account
    2. Causal Models
    3. States of Affairs
    4. The Eliminative Procedure
    5. Abstraction and Optimizing
    6. Cohesion
    7. The Optimizing Procedure
    8. Rival Accounts of Difference-Making Reconsidered

    4. The Kairetic Account of Explanation

    1. Standalone Explanation
    2. Difference-Making and Transitivity
    3. Comparing Standalone Explanations
    4. Laplacean Blindness

    5. Extending the Kairetic Account

    1. Quantifying Explanatory Relevance
    2. Trading Off Accuracy for Generality
    3. The Explanatory Framework
    4. Black Boxes and Multiple Realizability
    5. Aggregative Explanation
    6. Contrastive Explanation
    7. Beyond Causal Explanation

    6. Event Explanation and Causal Claims

    1. Background Conditions versus Causes
    2. Preemption
    3. Non-Events as Difference-Makers
    4. Non-Events as Explananda
    5. Transitivity
    6. Three Kinds of Causation

    Explanation of Laws and Regularities

    7. Regularity Explanation

    1. Approaches to Regularity Explanation
    2. Explaining Laws with Mechanisms
    3. Basing Generalizations
    4. Property Laws
    5. Other Laws
    6. The Metaphysics of High and Low

    8. Abstraction in Regularity Explanation

    1. Problems of Abstraction in Regularity Explanation
    2. Explaining Boyle’s Law
    3. A Theory of Idealization
    4. Mathematically Driven Explanation

    Probabilistic Explanation

    9. Approaches to Probabilistic Explanation

    1. Explanatory Questions
    2. Varieties of Probabilistic Explanation: Examples
    3. Varieties of Probabilistic Explanation: Commentary
    4. Accounts of Probabilistic Explanation
    5. Elitism versus Egalitarianism
    6. Probability and Determinism
    7. Formal Elements of the Kairetic Approach

    10. Kairetic Explanation of Frequencies

    1. Probabilistic Explanation in Deterministic Systems
    2. Explanation with Complex Probability
    3. Explanation with Quasiprobability
    4. Elitism versus Egalitarianism the Kairetic Way
    5. Regularity Explanation and Probabilistic Metaphysics

    11. Kairetic Explanation of Single Outcomes

    1. Single Outcome Explanation
    2. Robustness
    3. Non-Explanatory Probability-Raisers
    4. Non-Explanatory Critical Events
    5. Elitism and Egalitarianism Revisited

    Valediction

    12. Looking Outward

    1. Biology: Probabilistic Explanation
    2. Psychology: Content and Explanation
    3. Economics: Abstraction
    4. Explanatory Autonomy

    13. Looking Inward

    • Notes
  • Cover: Depth
  • A photo of the author

Michael Strevens is Professor of Philosophy at New York University.