The Role of Chance in Explanation
‘Those ice cubes melted because by melting total entropy increased and entropy increase has a very high objective chance.’ What role does the chance in this explanation play? I argue that it contributes to the explanation by entailing that the melting was almost necessary, and defend the claim that...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Taylor & Francis
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85652 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7892-4540 |
| _version_ | 1811089996881330176 |
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| author | Skow, Bradford |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Skow, Bradford |
| author_sort | Skow, Bradford |
| collection | MIT |
| description | ‘Those ice cubes melted because by melting total entropy increased and entropy increase has a very high objective chance.’ What role does the chance in this explanation play? I argue that it contributes to the explanation by entailing that the melting was almost necessary, and defend the claim that the fact that some event was almost necessary can, in the right circumstances, constitute a causal explanation of that event. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:29:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/85652 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:29:22Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/856522022-09-29T09:37:05Z The Role of Chance in Explanation Skow, Bradford Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Skow, Bradford ‘Those ice cubes melted because by melting total entropy increased and entropy increase has a very high objective chance.’ What role does the chance in this explanation play? I argue that it contributes to the explanation by entailing that the melting was almost necessary, and defend the claim that the fact that some event was almost necessary can, in the right circumstances, constitute a causal explanation of that event. 2014-03-14T19:30:25Z 2014-03-14T19:30:25Z 2013-05 2013-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0004-8402 1471-6828 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85652 Skow, Bradford. “The Role of Chance in Explanation.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92, no. 1 (January 2, 2014): 103–123. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7892-4540 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2013.790913 Australasian Journal of Philosophy Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Taylor & Francis MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Skow, Bradford The Role of Chance in Explanation |
| title | The Role of Chance in Explanation |
| title_full | The Role of Chance in Explanation |
| title_fullStr | The Role of Chance in Explanation |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Role of Chance in Explanation |
| title_short | The Role of Chance in Explanation |
| title_sort | role of chance in explanation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85652 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7892-4540 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT skowbradford theroleofchanceinexplanation AT skowbradford roleofchanceinexplanation |