The ultimate articulation of the account of explanatory understanding: Khalifa, Kareem: Understanding, explanation, and scientific knowledge, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 262 pp, £75 HB [Book Review]

Metascience 28 (1):61-64 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Kareem Khalifa’s Understanding, Explanation, and Scientific Knowledge is a splendid book, written in a beautiful and accessible style. It provides the ultimate articulation of his account of explanatory understanding that I am sure will be regarded as one of the landmark publications on the topic of scientific understanding. Many of the central questions regarding scientific understanding are treated from different perspectives in the book. Such questions are: Does understanding require explanations? Must it consist of mostly true information? Is it a species of knowledge? I cannot do justice to all the intricate details of Khalifa’s arguments in a short piece like this, so I will focus on discussing his main line of argument and some of the most salient questions that are addressed in the book, instead of summarizing and commenting on each chapter.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Innateness as an explanatory concept.David Wendler - 1996 - Biology and Philosophy 11 (1):89-116.
A Realist Theory of Understanding.John Marshall Bellwoar - 1997 - Dissertation, Brown University
Explanation and Understanding: An Alternative to Strevens’ D epth.Angela Potochnik - 2011 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 1 (1):29-38.
Explanatory Unification and Scientific Understanding.Eric Barnes - 1992 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992:3 - 12.
Agent-Based Simulation and Sociological Understanding.Petri Ylikoski - 2014 - Perspectives on Science 22 (3):318-335.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-10-16

Downloads
30 (#459,535)

6 months
5 (#247,092)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Daniel Kostić
Leiden University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation.Michael Strevens - 2008 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
No understanding without explanation.Michael Strevens - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (3):510-515.
What Makes a Scientific Explanation Distinctively Mathematical?Marc Lange - 2013 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64 (3):485-511.
Understanding without explanation.Peter Lipton - 2009 - In H. W. de Regt, S. Leonelli & K. Eigner (eds.), Scientific Understanding: Philosophical Perspectives. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 43-63.

Add more references