Huge thanks to Christina for bringing donuts and coffee!
So, what's an explanation?
Example: phenomenon: when you heat up liquid water, it becomes steam. Explanation:
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water is made of particles
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these particles move around
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heating the water = making the particles move faster
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when they move around fast enough (and collide hard enough) they start to launch into the air
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this launching into the air is what we see as liquid water becoming steam
phenomenon: coffee makes you pee a lot explanation:
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we have an anti-diuretic hormone that causes reabsorption of water in the second half of the nephron
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coffee inhibits this hormone, slowing reabsorption
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slowed reabsorption means there's more water in the urinary bladder
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fuller bladder makes you have (and want) to pee more
phenomenon: the Yankees win more World Series than any other team explanation 1:
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the Red Sox are cursed
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the Ys' cool logo enhances their luck
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baseball is driven by luck
explanation 2:
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they (the Yankees) have lots of money
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money buys the best players
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baseball games are won by good players
explanation 3:
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the Yankees have the most experienced management
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baseball is won by experience and good management
explanation 4:
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the Yankees have aura of winnerdom
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aura intimidates
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baseball teams lose when intimidated
Hempel and Oppenheim describe explanation as consisting of the explanandum and the explanans
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explanandum is the sentence describing the phenomenon
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explanans is the conditions and laws
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laws are the things we believe about nature
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antecedent conditions connect these laws to the explanandum
But Yankee explanation 2 doesn't work! The Angels have poor payroll but do well. And what about prediction? Hempel and Oppenheim be
but physical laws should govern baseball players can the explanans be about physical laws of baseball-playing? But it doesn't account for chance, interactions, why some teams have stronger players than others okay, but there are levels of organization
Levels of explanation Do we want to explain at the highest possible level? Maybe, because too far down allows for too much error. But too high is
Prediction and explanation differ only in whether you know the explanandum beforehand
