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Author:   Marc Lange (Chair of the Philosophy Department, Chair of the Philosophy Department, University of North Carolina)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 25.10cm , Height: 4.60cm , Length: 16.30cm
Weight:   0.816kg
ISBN:  

9780190269487

ISBN 10:   0190269480
Pages:   512
Publication Date:   08 December 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

"0. Preface 0.1 Welcome 0.2 What this book is not about 0.3 Coming attractions Part 1: Scientific Explanations by Constraint 1. What Makes a Scientific Explanation Distinctively Mathematical? 1.1 Distinctively mathematical explanations in science as non-causal scientific explanations 1.2 Are distinctively mathematical explanations set apart by their failure to cite causes? 1.3 Mathematical explanations do not exploit causal powers 1.4 How these distinctively mathematical explanations work 1.5 Elaborating my account of distinctively mathematical explanations 1.6 Conclusion 2. ""There Sweep Great General Principles Which All The Laws Seem To Follow"" 2.1 The task: to unpack the title of this chapter 2.2 Constraints versus coincidences 2.3 Hybrid explanations 2.4 Other possible kinds of constraints besides conservation laws 2.5 Constraints as modally more exalted than the force laws they constrain 2.6 My account of the difference between constraints and coincidences 2.7 Accounts that rule out explanations by constraint 3. The Lorentz Transformations and the Structure of Explanations by Constraint 3.1 Transformation laws as constraints or coincidences 3.2 The Lorentz transformations given an explanation by constraint 3.3 Principle versus constructive theories 3.4 How this non-causal explanation comes in handy 3.5 How explanations by constraint work 3.6 Supplying information about the source of a constraint's necessity 3.7 What makes a constraint ""explanatorily fundamental""? Appendix: A purely kinematical derivation of the Lorentz transformations 4. The Parallelogram of Forces and the Autonomy of Statics 4.1 A forgotten controversy in the foundations of classical physics 4.2 The dynamical explanation of the parallelogram of forces 4.3 Duchayla's statical explanation 4.4 Poisson's statical explanation 4.5 Statical explanation under some familiar accounts of natural law 4.6 My account of what is at stake Part 2: Two Other Varieties of Non-Causal Explanation in Science 5. Really Statistical Explanations and Genetic Drift 5.1 Introduction to Part 2 5.2 RS (Really Statistical) explanations 5.3 Drift 6. Dimensional Explanations 6.1 A simple dimensional explanation 6.2 A more complicated dimensional explanation 6.3 Different features of a derivative law may receive different dimensional explanations 6.4 Dimensional homogeneity 6.5 Independence from some other quantities as part of a dimensional explanans Part 3. Explanation in Mathematics 7. Aspects of Mathematical Explanation: Symmetry, Salience, and Simplicity 7.1 Introduction to proofs that explain why mathematical theorems holds 7.2 Zeitz's biased coin: A suggestive example of mathematical explanation 7.3 Explanation by symmetry 7.4 A theorem explained by a symmetry in the unit imaginary number 7.5 Geometric explanations that exploit symmetry 7.6 Generalizing the proposal 7.7 Conclusion 8. Mathematical Coincidences and Mathematical Explanations That Unify 8.1 What is a mathematical coincidence? 8.2 Can mathematical coincidence be understood without appealing to mathematical explanation? 8.3 A mathematical coincidence's components have no common proof 8.4 A shift of context may change a proof's explanatory power 8.5 Comparison to other proposals 8.6 Conclusion 9 Desargues' Theorem as a Case Study of Mathematical Explanation, Existence, and Natural Properties 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Three proofs - but only one explanation - of Desargues' theorem in two-dimensional Euclidean geometry 9.3 Why Desargues' theorem in two-dimensional Euclidean geometry is explained by an exit to the third dimension 9.4 Desargues' theorem in projective geometry: unification and existence in mathematics 9.5 Desargues' theorem in projective geometry: explanation and natural properties in mathematics 9.6 Explanation by subsumption under a theorem 9.7 Conclusion Part 4: Explanations in Mathematics and Non-Causal Scientific Explanations -- Together 10 Mathematical Coincidence and Scientific Explanation 10.1 Physical coincidences that are no mathematical coincidence 10.2 Explanations from common mathematical form 10.3 Explanations from common dimensional architecture 10.4 Targeting new explananda 11 What Makes Some Reducible Physical Properties Explanatory? 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Centers of mass and reduced mass 11.3 Reducible properties on Strevens's account of scientific explanation 11.4 Dimensionless quantities as explanatorily powerful reducible properties 11.5 My proposal 11.6 Conclusion: all varieties of explanation as species of the same genus References Index"

Reviews

With this book Lange really raises the bar for those involved in the study of explanation(s) in science and mathematics. -- Daniele Molinini, Philosophia Mathematica Marc Lange provides an elaborate philosophical analysis of non-causal explanations in the (natural) sciences and in pure mathematics...This is an original and thought-provoking contribution to the current debate on non-causal explanations in philosophy of science and philosophy of mathematics...Lange's work -- including this book and a number of papers -- is one of the driving forces and highly original voices in the debate...Lange's book is an excellent, creative and thought-provoking scholarly contribution to the current debate on explanation. In particular, I believe it is likely the book will have a stimulating and fruitful effect on the literature. -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Marc Lange provides an elaborate philosophical analysis of non-causal explanations in the (natural) sciences and in pure mathematics...This is an original and thought-provoking contribution to the current debate on non-causal explanations in philosophy of science and philosophy of mathematics...Lange's work - including this book and a number of papers - is one of the driving forces and highly original voices in the debate...Lange's book is an excellent, creative and thought-provoking scholarly contribution to the current debate on explanation. In particular, I believe it is likely the book will have a stimulating and fruitful effect on the literature. Alexander Reutlinger, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Author Information

Marc Lange is a philosopher of science. He serves as Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is the Theda Perdue Distinguished Professor. His previous books include Laws and Lawmakers (OUP 2009), An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics: Locality, Fields, Energy, and Mass (2002), and Natural Laws in Scientific Practice (OUP 2000).

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