Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

Repository | Journal | Volume | Article

234626

Unification, the answer to resemblance questions

Erik WeberMerel Lefevere

pp. 3501-3521

Abstract

In the current literature on scientific explanation unification became unfashionable in favour of causal approaches. We want to bring unification back into the picture. In this paper we demonstrate that resemblance questions do occur in scientific practice and that they cannot be properly answered without unification. Our examples show that resemblance questions about particular facts demand what we call causal network unification, while resemblance questions about regularities require what we call mechanism unification. We clarify how these types of unification relate to Philip Kitcher’s account, but also to causal and mechanistic accounts of explanation.

Publication details

Published in:

Ruttkamp-Bloem Emma (2017) New thinking about scientific realism. Synthese 194 (9).

Pages: 3501-3521

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-015-0969-9

Full citation:

Weber Erik, Lefevere Merel (2017) „Unification, the answer to resemblance questions“. Synthese 194 (9), 3501–3521.