Explanation

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An explanation is a statement which points to causes, context, and consequences of some object, process, state of affairs, etc., together with rules or laws that link these to the object. Some of these element of the explanation may be implicit.

An explanation is often underpinned by an understanding that is represented by different media such as music, text, and graphics. Thus, an explanation is subjected to interpretation, and discussion.

In scientific research, explanation is one of the purposes of research, e.g.,exploration and description. Explanation is a way to state discovery, and to report relationships among different aspects of studied phenomena.

Some types of explanations are:

• Deductive-nomological
• Functional
• Historical
• Psychological
• Reductive
• Teleological
• Methodological

See also

• Abductive reasoning
• Cogency
• Epistemology
• Explanandum and Explanans
• Inductive reasoning
• Inquiry
• Knowledge
• Scientific method
• Unexplained
• Rationalization

External links

• at The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-explanation/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Scientific Explanation

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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 18:08:01 PST (GMT -0800)
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