GDL

Was the Truth Ever Meant to Explain Much? A Critique of Nancy Cartwright

ISSN: 0362-3319.
Journal from gdlhub / 2017-08-14 12:04:24
Oleh : MICHAEL X. ASHOOH and PAUL C. L. TANG, California State University, Long Beach
Dibuat : 2012-06-19, dengan 1 file

Keyword : Was the Truth Ever Meant to Explain Much? A Critique of Nancy Cartwright
Subjek : Was the Truth Ever Meant to Explain Much? A Critique of Nancy Cartwright
Sumber pengambilan dokumen : Internet

Does the D-N model of explanation commit one to any particular view of the role of laws


in scientific explanations? How exactly are scientific theories to be understood to generate


explanations? Nancy Cartwright, in her article “The Truth Doesn’t Explain Much”, argues


that the D-N model of scientific explanation “fosters” a mistaken conception of scientific


theories. The D-N model implicitly commits its advocates to the view that “scientific


theories . . . explain by dint of the description they give of reality,” and that “to describe


nature is . . . ipso facto to lay down how we are to explain it” (Cartwright, 1983, p. 44).


In addition, the D-N model holds that one fact can explain another just in case the second


is deducible from the first, “given the laws of nature” (p. 44). But, true covering laws are


scarce. Laws of nature are most often ceteris paribus generalizations and “ceteris paribus


generalizations, read literally without the “ceteris paribus’ modifier, are false” (p. 45). Because most phenomena do not fit the appropriate laws, they do not fit into the D-N


model. Accordingly, the D-N model does not actually explain most phenomena and is,


rather, an idealized reconstruction of scientific practice that fails to capture what science


and scientists actually do. Cartwright argues that the situation is bad all around for the D-N


model because either Hempel’s truth requirement for the D-N model is violated or the


sorts of occurrences which the D-N model is able to cover are so scarce that it is rendered


superfluous.

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