Explanations in K - An Analysis of Explanation as a Belief Revision Operation. Dissertationsschrift

Explanations in K presents a novel analysis of the concept of explanation based on the belief-doubt model of inquiry first proposed by Peirce. Using the tools provided by decision theory and the model of belief revision developed by Isaac Levi, the book offers an analysis of the objective and pragmatic conditions that a piece of information must fulfill to be both explanatory and epistemically useful to the scientific community.Most theories of explanation eschew all pragmatic considerations and concentrate on the syntactic and semantic conditions that must be imposed on explanation to guarantee its objectivity. Andrés Páez argues that, as an epistemological notion, a factually accurate explanation can only be a bona fide explanation if an agent or a group of agents can see any value in it for their cognitive purposes. The book provides a way to evaluate an explanation in terms of its credibility, its content, and its explanatory value.

About the author

Andrés Páez (Ph.D., City University of New York) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and director of the Research Group in Logic, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. He has taught at Queens College and Brooklyn College in New York, and at the National University of Colombia. He is currently working on a belief revision model for causal inferences.

Product details

• Authors: Andrés Páez
• Publisher: Athena Verlag
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 10.08.2015
• EAN: 9783898962605
• ISBN: 978-3-89896-260-5
• No. of pages: 152
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 210 mm x 8 mm
• Weight: 220 g
• Series: Diskurs Philosophie; Diskurs Philosophie
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > 20th and 21st centuries; 1500 bis heute, Epistemologie, Epistemologie und Erkenntnistheorie, Philosophie / Philosophiegeschichte