Explanation and Understanding

Science has multiple goals: to describe the world, as it is now; to predict the future and to make inferences about the past. But science also aims to understand the world - to explain why it is the way it is. But what does it take to explain a phenomenon? What philosophical questions are at stake?

In this thorough and clearly written introduction to scientific explanation, Arnon Levy explores the following problems and questions:

• the background to the topic of scientific explanation, particularly the questions of what an explanation is, what makes a good explanation and why seek them in the first place
• empiricism about explanation: Hempel''s Deductive-Nomological model and criticisms of Hempel''s theory
• unificationism about explanation: are good scientific explanations those fit into an overall ''explanatory store''?
• causation and explanation: Salmon''s ''statistical relevance'' and ''mark transmission'' arguments
• causation and expla