Wang - Explanation, Laws, and Causation

Scientific explanation, laws of nature, and causation are crucial and frontier issues in the philosophy of science. This book studies the complex relationship between the three concepts, aiming to achieve a holistic synthesis about explanationlawscausation.

By reviewing Hempels scientific explanation models and Salmons three conceptions the epistemic, modal, and ontic conception the book suggests that laws are essential to explanation and that our understanding of laws will help solve the problems of the latter. Concerning the nature of laws, this book tackles both the problems of regularity approach and necessitarian approach. It also proposes that the ontological order of explanation should be from events (or processes) to causation, then to regularity (laws), and finally to science system, but the epistemological order should be from science system to laws to explanation and causation. In addition, this book examines the legitimacy of ceteris paribus laws, the connection between explanation and reduction, the relation between explanation and interpretation, and some other issues closely related to explanationlawscausation. This book will attract scholars and students of philosophy of science, natural sciences, social sciences, etc.

Wei Wang is a professor at the Institute of Science, Technology and Society, Tsinghua University. His research interests include general philosophy of science, philosophy of social science, and philosophy of biology.

The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works by leading Chinese scholars, writing about both global topics and China-related themes. It covers Humanities & Social Sciences, Education, Media and Psychology, as well as many interdisciplinary themes.

This is the first time any of these books have been published in English for international readers. The series aims to put forward a Chinese perspective, give insights into cutting-edge academic thinking in China, and inspire researchers globally.

For more information, please visit www.routledge.com/series/CPH.

Forthcoming titles:

Return to Scientific Practice A New Reflection of Philosophy of Science

Tong Wu

Central Issues of Philosophy of Science

Wei Wang

Secret Subversion I: Mou Zongsan, Kant, and Original Confuciaism

Wenming Tang

Secret Subversion II: Mou Zongsan, Kant, and Original Confuciaism

Wenming Tang

Confucius and Modern World

Lai Chen

This book is published with financial support from the Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences

First published 2017

by Routledge

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2017 Wei Wang

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ISBN: 978-1-138-84583-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-72790-5 (ebk)

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Many thanks to Routledge and Taylor & Francis Group for publishing the English version. The Chinese version of this book was finished in draft form in 2010 and was then published in 2011, so I had not tackled currently the most influential account of scientific explanation, James Woodwards manipulationist account. Woodwards Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation was published in 2003 and received the Lakatos Award in 2005. In this work, he argues against the unificationist account and constructs a comprehensive theory of causal explanation. In response, I am currently writing a paper, coauthored with Professor Chuang Liu at the University of Florida, criticizing Woodards manipulationist account and calling for peaceful coexistence between Woodards causal explanation and Philip Kitchers unificationist model.

This is my first time publishing a book in English with an international publisher. Stacey Carter at Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Autumn Spalding at Apex, and Qiuwan Zhuang, Qiaozheng Wang, and Christine Lv at Tsinghua University Press have provided me with great assistance in making this publication a reality.

The translation of this book was greatly supported by my graduates: Jiuheng He for . My former graduate Mingjun Zhang, now a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, provided most of the English quotations. Ryan Pino, a graduate student in the School of Philosophy at Fudan University, polished the English of the whole book. He is not only excellent at English polishing, but is also experienced at editing, which helped make the text much more fluent. However, I take full responsibility for any mistakes or errors in the book.

The translation and publication of the English version have been sponsored by the Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences (No. 16WXZ011).

My research on explanation, laws, and causation started from the concept of scientific explanation. Carl Gustav Hempels explanation models are praised as a paradigm of the philosophical analysis of scientific concepts. However, even his well-articulated explanation models have been met with many counter-examples and problems. I was very curious about this and began to study the issue. In doing so, I came to realize that Hempels explanation models were also called covering law models, yet he did not provide a satisfactory answer to the nature of laws. Indeed, because the debate surrounding laws of nature remains a controversial topic in the philosophy of science, I wish to combine scientific explanation and laws of nature and then pursue their common answer.

There has been an academic succession that partly explains my interest in studying the explanationlawcausation issue. When I was a visiting fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Science, the University of Pittsburgh, from 2005 to 2006, I met the former director Professor Gerald Massey. Learning that he had taught at Michigan State University in the 1960s and 1970s, I recalled that my PhD supervisor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Hsiu-hwang Ho, had pursued his PhD degree at MSU during that time. Sure enough, when I asked Massey whether or not he knew a Taiwanese student, he told me Hos name precisely; to my surprise, Ho was Masseys PhD student! Then, Massey proudly added one sentence: that he was C. G. Hempels PhD student. So, academically, I can be considered a great-grandson of Hempel!