Explanatory unification

Thomas Bartelborth

pp. 91-108

in: C. U. Moulines (ed), Structuralism, Synthese 130 (1), 2002.

Abstract

Explanations contribute to our understanding of the world byembedding phenomena into general nomic patterns that we recognize in the world. Manyof these patterns are, of course, causal ones, but the declaration as ``causal'' often fails to determinethe explanatory power of the pattern. More important is the systematization capacity and the empiricalcontent of the pattern or theory with respect to explanations. We can specify these parameters moreprecisely within the framework of the structuralist view of theories.