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Interventionist Explanation and the Problem of Single Variable Boundary Constraints
Author(s) -
Wilhelm Isaac
Publication year - 2020
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/nous.12303
Subject(s) - interventionism (politics) , variable (mathematics) , boundary (topology) , invariant (physics) , epistemology , mathematical economics , philosophy , mathematics , political science , law , international relations , mathematical analysis , politics , mathematical physics
According to Interventionism , explanations cite invariant relations which hold among multiple variables. Interventionism incorrectly implies, however, that many common scientific explanations—which cite single‐variable boundary constraints—are not actually explanatory. So I propose a different account of explanation, similar in spirit to Interventionism , which gets those cases of scientific explanation right.