2003/02/12 by James Woodward, Christopher Hitchcock · 315 citations
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · #Citation #Computer science #Counterfactual thinking #Epistemology #Geochemistry and Geologic Mapping #Library science #Philosophy #Philosophy and History of Science
paper · doi:10.1111/1468-0068.00426
published in Noûs 37(1), 1-24 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2003/02/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
[Introduction] The nomothetic conception of explanation, according to which all successful explanations must appeal to laws, has dominated the discussion of scientific explanation in the second half of the twentieth century. The best known formulation of the nomothetic conception of explanation is, of course, Hempel’s Deductive-Nomological theory of explanation. While few philosophers today accept the D-N theory of explanation in its original formulation, there is widespread consensus that laws play a central role in explanation, even among prominent critics of the D-N model such as Wesley Salmon (see, e.g., Salmon 1984, p. 262).