Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T20:28:05.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reassessing Woodward’s Account of Explanation: Regularities, Counterfactuals, and Noncausal Explanations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Abstract

We reassess Woodward’s counterfactual account of explanation in relation to regularity explananda. Woodward presents an account of causal explanation. We argue, by using an explanation of Kleiber’s law to illustrate, that the account can also cover some noncausal explanations. This leads to a tension between the two key aspects of Woodward’s account: the counterfactual aspect and the causal aspect. We explore this tension and make a case for jettisoning the causal aspect as constitutive of explanatory power in connection with regularity explananda.

Type
General Philosophy of Science
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bokulich, Alisa. 2008. “Can Classical Structures Explain Quantum Phenomena?British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59:217–35.10.1093/bjps/axn004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bokulich, Alisa 2011. “How Scientific Models Can Explain.” Synthese 180:3345.10.1007/s11229-009-9565-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchcock, Christopher, and Woodward, James. 2003. “Explanatory Generalizations.” Pt. 2, “Plumbing Explanatory Depth.” Noûs 37:181–99.10.1111/1468-0068.00435CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, Geoffrey, Brown, James H., and Enquist, Brian. 1999. “The Fourth Dimension of Life: Fractal Geometry and Allometric Scaling of Organisms.” Science 284:1677–79.10.1126/science.284.5420.1677CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
West, Geoffrey, Brown, James H., and Enquist, Brian 2000. “The Origin of Universal Scaling Laws in Biology.” In Scaling in Biology, ed. Brown, James H. and West, Geoffrey, 87112. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, James. 2003. Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, James, and Hitchcock, Christopher. 2003. “Explanatory Generalizations.” Pt. 1, “A Counterfactual Account.” Noûs 37:124.10.1111/1468-0068.00426CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ylikoski, Petri, and Kuorikoski, Jaakko. 2010. “Dissecting Explanatory Power.” Philosophical Studies 148:201–19.10.1007/s11098-008-9324-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar