Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-kp629 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T12:28:54.113Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interpolation as Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Jaakko Hintikka  and
Ilpo Halonen
Jaakko Hintikka
Affiliation:
Boston University
Ilpo Halonen*
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
*
†Hintikka: Department of Philosophy, 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215; Halonen: Department of Philosophy, P.O. Box 24 (Unioninkatu 40), University of Helsinki, Helsinki Finland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A (normalized) interpolant I in Craig's theorem is a kind of explanation why the consequence relation (from F to G) holds. This is because I is a summary of the interaction of the configurations specified by F and G, respectively, that shows how G follows from F. If explaining E means deriving it from a background theory T plus situational information A and if among the concepts of E we can separate those occurring only in T or only in A, then the interpolation theorem applies in two different ways yielding two different explanations and two different covering laws.

Information

Type
Explanation, Confirmation, and Scientific Inference
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 66 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1999 , 1999 , pp. S414 - S423
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Craig, William (1957), “Three Uses of the Herbrand-Gentzen Theorem in Relating Model Theory and Proof Theory”, Journal of Symbolic Logic 22: 269–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hintikka, Jaakko (1998), “Ramsey Sentences and the Meaning of Quantifiers”, Philosophy of Science 65: 289–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hintikka, Jaakko. (forthcoming), “The Art of Thinking: A Guide for the Perplexed”.Google Scholar
Hintikka, Jaakko and Halonen, Ilpo (1995), “Semantics and Pragmatics for Why-questions”, Journal of Philosophy 92: 636–657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hintikka, Jaakko and Halonen, Ilpo. (forthcoming), “Toward a Theory of the Process of Explanation”.Google Scholar