Understanding and Scientific Explanation (A Study of Scientific Explanation from the Perspective of Hermeneutics)

Author: Cao Zhiping (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: Scientific explanation is the focal point of all epistemological and methodological issues in science, and the central problem of philosophy of science. This book, in its philosophical research on scientific explanation, critically introduces the ideas and methods of philosophical hermeneutics. It regards the relationship between understanding and explanation as the fundamental relationship of human scientific activities, and understands scientific explanation from the ontological, epistemological, and methodological levels of the relationship between understanding and explanation. It explains the dialectical relationship between the explanation of natural science and the explanation of humanities and social sciences. It explores the conditions for the possibility of scientific explanation, answering the question of why scientific explanation is possible; it elaborates on the concept of scientific texts, expands the standard model of law explanation, introduces the semantic interpretation of formal systems, proposes a scientific explanation model based on quantum mechanics, and discusses the possibility and uniqueness of applying this model in humanities and social sciences. The theoretical achievements and research methods of this book may have a positive impact on the philosophy of science and philosophical hermeneutics.