Explanatory pluralism / / C. Mantzavinos [[electronic resource]]

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910136755303321
• Autore: Mantzavinos Chrysostomos
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2016
• ISBN: 1-316-66818-5; 1-316-66878-9; 1-316-66888-6; 1-316-66898-3; 1-316-66938-6; 1-316-66908-4; 1-316-66928-9; 1-316-44059-1
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xiv, 221 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Disciplina: 121/.6
• Soggetti: Explanation; Social sciences - Philosophy; Science - Philosophy
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 May 2016).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
• Nota di contenuto: Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. The wrong question: what is an explanation?; 3. A brief outlook on the social sciences; 4. Towards explanatory pluralism; 5. The explanatory enterprise; 6. The rules of the explanatory games; 7. The plurality of explanatory games; 8. Explanatory activity as problem solving activity; 9. Explanatory rules as shared rules; 10. Normative appraisal: a procedural conception (approach); 11. Explanatory methodology as technology; 12. Epilogue.
• Sommario/riassunto: Explaining phenomena is one of the main activities in which scientists engage. This book proposes a new philosophical theory of scientific explanation by developing and defending the position of explanatory pluralism with the help of the notion of 'explanatory games'. Mantzavinos provides a descriptive account of the explanatory activity of scientists in different domains and shows how they differ from ; commonsensical explanations offered in everyday life by ordinary people and also from explanations offered in religious contexts. He also shows how an evaluation and a critical appraisal of explanations put forward in different social arenas can take place on the basis of different values. Explanatory Pluralism provides solutions to all important descriptive and normative problems of the philosophical theory of explanation as illustrated in sophisticated case studies from economics and medicine, but also from mythology and religion.