Explanation and Understanding

In both science and philosophy, good theories provide good explanations. Views on explanation diverge strongly. Explanation has been held to be brought about by subsumption under laws of nature, by unification, or by description of causes. Regardless, explanation is generally agreed to be an epistemic concern. Not so understanding. It was long ignored or thought to simply follow from explanation. More recently, some have defended understanding as a more independent phenomenon worthy of investigation. This workshop will discuss some of the latest developments in the debate and possible ways of advancing it.

(Funded in collaboration with the DFF Sapere Aude project Intuitions in Science and Philosophy” (PI: Samuel Schindler), and by the research programme for philosophy and intellectual history at Aarhus University)