Précis of Depth
Précis of Depth
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深度概要
DOI：
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发表时间：
2012
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通讯作者：
M. Strevens
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作者：
M. Strevens
许多科学解释都是从定律或其他概括中演绎推导的形式。然而，亨佩尔和奥本海姆（Hempel and Oppenheim，1948）用涉及法律的演绎的解释方程受到了诸如 agpole 和 Shadow 之类的情况的阻碍：两种演绎，形式上几乎相同，却具有截然不同的解释性质。 agpole 影子的长度可以通过从 agpole 的高度和太阳的位置推导来解释，但是 agpole 的高度肯定不能通过从影子的长度推导来解释。显然，前面的推导之所以具有解释性，是因为它超出了单纯的逻辑推论。现代对这种情况的反应（与亚里士多德在《后分析》1.13 中暗示的反应没有太大不同）是，演绎只是一种表征工具：解释的实质在于演绎所代表的内容，这几乎被普遍认为是一种因果关系。如果正确的话，从高度中减去长度就代表了小角和太阳共同造成阴影的因果过程。逆推不能代表因果过程，因为不存在从阴影到极点的过程。简而言之，解释的是因果事实——构成导致被解释的过程的事实
Many scientic explanations have the form of deductive derivations from laws or other generalizations. Hempel and Oppenheim’s (1948) equation of explanation with law-involving deduction is stymied, however, by cases such as the agpole and the shadow: two deductions, formally almost identical, have quite dierent explanatory properties. e length of the agpole’s shadow can be explained by deriving it from the height of the agpole and the position of the sun, but the height of the agpole is certainly not explained by deriving it from the length of its shadow. e former derivation owes its explanatoriness, apparently, to something that goes beyond mere logical deduction. e modern reaction to this case (not so dierent from that insinuated by Aristotle in Posterior Analytics 1.13) is that the deduction is only a representational instrument: the meat of the explanation inheres in what the deduction stands for, which is almost universally taken to be a causal relation. A deduction of the length from the height, if done right, represents the causal process by which the agpole and sun together cause the shadow. e reverse deduction fails to represent a causal process, because there is no such process running from shadow to pole. What explains, in short, are the causal facts—the facts that constitute the process causing the explanandum