UNIFICATION AND THE MYTH OF PURELY REDUCTIVE UNDERSTANDING

• Authors: Shaffer Michael J.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper significant challenges are raised with respect to the view that explanation essentially involves unification. These objections are raised specifically with respect to the well-known versions of unificationism developed and defended by Michael Friedman and Philip Kitcher. The objections involve the explanatory regress argument and the concepts of reduction and scientific understanding. Essentially, the contention made here is that these versions of unificationism wrongly assume that reduction secures understanding.

Keywords

EN

EXPLANATION; REDUCTION; SIMPLICITY; SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING; UNIFICATION; FRIEDMAN MICHAEL; KITCHER PHILIP

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute of Philosophy of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
• Journal: Organon F. medzinárodný časopis pre analytickú filozofiu
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 142 – 168

Contributors

author

Shaffer Michael J.

• St. Cloud State University, Department of Philosophy, CH365N, 720 4th Ave. S., St. Cloud, MN 56301, USA

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2020.27201