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Distinctively mathematical explanation and the problem of directionality: A quasi-erotetic solution
1University of Missouri-Columbia, 438 Strickland Hall, Columbia, 65201, MO, USA.
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
|June 10, 2021
Abstract:
The increasing preponderance of opinion that some natural phenomena can be explained mathematically has inspired a search for a viable account of distinctively mathematical explanation. Among the desiderata for an adequate account is that it should solve the problem of directionality -the reversals of distinctively mathematical explanations should not count as members among the explanatory fold but any solution must also avoid the exclusion of genuine explanations. In what follows, I introduce and defend what I refer to as a quasi-erotetic solution which provides a remedy to the problem in the form of an additional necessary condition on explanation.