Abstract
Scientific explanations have been intensively studied by philosophers of science during the last five decades. Explanations of laws did not receive as much attention as explanations of particular facts. In this article, I present a model for one type of explanations of laws: reductions of laws to phenomena at a micro-level. Examples of such reductions can be found in the natural sciences (the ideal gas law is probably the most famous example here) and in the social sciences (e.g., reduction of macroeconomic laws to the behaviour of individual economic agents).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Hempel, C. G. (1965). Aspects of Scientific Explanation and Other Essays in the Philosophy of Science. The Free Press, New York.
Hausman, D. M. (1998). Causal Asymmetries. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Humphreys, P. (1989). The Chances of Explanation. Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
Mackie, J. (1974). The Cement of the Universe. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Weber, E. (1998). The practical functions and epistemology of causal beliefs. Communication Cognition, 31: 297–324.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Weber, E. (2003). Explaining Laws by Reduction. In: Rojszczak, A., Cachro, J., Kurczewski, G. (eds) Philosophical Dimensions of Logic and Science. Synthese Library, vol 320. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2612-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2612-2_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6432-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2612-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive