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The Different Sciences Furnish Us With A Wide Variety Of Explanations: Some Work At Macroscopic Scales, Some Work At Microscopic Scales And Some Operate Across Different Levels. How Does These Different Explanatory Levels Relate To One Another, And What Is An Explanatory Level In The First Place? Over The Last 50 Years, More And More Philosophers-both Reductionists And Anti-reductionists-no Longer Subscribe To The Idea That The Best Explanation Resides At The Fundamental Physical Level. This Introduction Sets Out The General Idea Of Levels Of Explanation As It Has Figured In Philosophy Of Science And Metaphysics, And Identifies Some Themes Which Unite This Volume's Chapters: The Legitimacy And Usefulness Of Levels Frameworks In The Philosophy Of Explanation, How Levels Of Causal Explanation Relate To Each Other, How Levels Of Explanation Span Different Disciplines With Different Explanatory Approaches, And What Conditions Make For The Possibility Of Multiple Levels Of Explanation-- Provided By Publisher.
This volume investigates the conceptual validity and structural relationships between the various explanatory levels employed across different scientific disciplines. Editors Katie Robertson and Alastair Wilson compile contributions from contemporary philosophers to challenge the traditional reductionist view that fundamental physics provides the only legitimate explanatory framework. The text evaluates how causal explanations function across scales and identifies the conditions necessary for maintaining multiple, non-reducible levels of scientific inquiry.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts identify this volume as a significant contribution to the philosophy of science, particularly for those interested in the mechanics of explanation. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, making it most suitable for advanced students and professional philosophers.
Page Count:
432
Publication Date:
2025-01-31
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0192862944
ISBN-13:
9780192862945
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