EXPLANATORINESS: CAUSE VERSUS CRAIG

Abstract

In "Toward a Theory of the Process of Explanation", Ilpo Halonen and Jaakko Hintikka (2003) present two interlocking theses, one positive, one negative. Their positive thesis is that philosophical inquiries into the nature of explanation should begin with a theory that explicates the logical form of the process of explaining, [ms. 4] Given that explanations are the product of such processes, a theory of explanation will emerge as a con sequence of the theory of explaining. Their negative thesis is that the nature and importance of what they call the "covering law model" of explanations has been dramatically misunderstood. By analyzing the logical form of the process of explanation, Halonen and Hintikka endeavor to show that covering laws should be viewed not as premises, but rather as 'summaries' of explanatory arguments. The core of Halonen and Hintikka's positive thesis is a theory of the process of explaining which the authors dub the "interrogative nomological" model. Since the interrogative-nomological model is essen tially a special case of Hintikka's interrogative model of inquiry, [ms. 4] the explanatory process overall is viewed as an interrogative "argument", aimed at finding an answer to the question why E?, where E is the ex planandum. Such argument begins with a (possibly informal) background theory T, then proceeds with the explainer posing "questions" to nature (experiments) and nature yielding "answers" (results of experiments). At least a part of this process is aimed at establishing some suitable initial conditions / such that the explanandum can be logically derived from T and /. Accordingly, while explaining does contain a deductive element, it is not a purely deductive enterprise, [ms. 44] Halonen and Hintikka emphasize that the explanandum (and, presum ably, the explanans) can have any logical form whatsoever, [ms. 27] What is critical in explanations is the behavior of non-logical constants, [ms. 27] The constants in the explanandum fall into two mutually exclusive, but not necessarily exhaustive, classes: the critical and the queried constants. The critical ones are, so to speak, the values of the parameters that specify