Moving Beyond Causes: Optimality Models and Scientific Explanation.
A prominent approach to scientific explanation and modeling claims that for a model to provide an explanation it must accurately represent at least some of the actual causes in the event's causal history. In this paper, I argue that many optimality explanations present a serious challenge to this ca...
| Published in: | Nous (0029-4624) Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 589 - 616 |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
Sep2015
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=108562636&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 108562636 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00294624 D97 jtl: Nous (0029-4624) issn: 00294624 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Sep2015 vid: 49 iid: 3 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 108562636 10.1111/nous.12042 ppf: 589 ppct: 27 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 259KB tig: atl: Moving Beyond Causes: Optimality Models and Scientific Explanation. aug: au: Rice, Collin affil: Lycoming College su: Causal models Explanation Mathematical optimization Mathematical models Science sug: subj: Causal models Explanation Mathematical optimization Mathematical models Science ab: A prominent approach to scientific explanation and modeling claims that for a model to provide an explanation it must accurately represent at least some of the actual causes in the event's causal history. In this paper, I argue that many optimality explanations present a serious challenge to this causal approach. I contend that many optimality models provide highly idealized equilibrium explanations that do not accurately represent the causes of their target system(s). Furthermore, in many contexts, it is in virtue of their independence of causes that optimality models are able to provide a better explanation than competing causal models. Consequently, our account of explanation and modeling must expand beyond the causal approach. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Nous (0029-4624) is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Nous (0029-4624) holder: Wiley-Blackwell dt: @attributes: year: 2015 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|