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The Causal and Unification Approaches to Explanation Unified—Causally
Author(s) -
Strevens Michael
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
noûs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.574
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1468-0068
pISSN - 0029-4624
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0068.2004.00466.x
Subject(s) - unification , causal model , causality (physics) , causal structure , epistemology , computer science , mathematics , philosophy , physics , statistics , quantum mechanics , programming language
Two major modern accounts of explanation are the causal and the unification accounts. My aim in this paper is to provide a kind of unification of the two, by using the central technical apparatus of the unification account to solve a central problem faced by the causal account, namely, the problem of determining which parts of a causal network are explanatorily relevant to the occurrence of an explanandum. The result is a causal account of explanation that has many of the advantages of the unification account.