Explanations in K presents a novel analysis of the concept of explanation based on the belief-doubt model of inquiry first proposed by Peirce. Using the tools provided by decision theory and the model of belief revision developed by Isaac Levi, the book offers an analysis of the objective and pragmatic conditions that a piece of information must fulfill to be both explanatory and epistemically useful to the scientific community.

Most theories of explanation eschew all pragmatic considerations and concentrate on the syntactic and semantic conditions that must be imposed on explanation to guarantee its objectivity. Andrés Páez argues that, as an epistemological notion, a factually accurate explanation can only be a bona fide explanation if an agent or a group of agents can see any value in it for their cognitive purposes. The book provides a way to evaluate an explanation in terms of its credibility, its content, and its explanatory value.

• Teile dieses Buch auf:
• twitter
• facebook