The Role of Chance in Explanation

Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92 (1):103-123 (2014)
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Abstract

‘Those ice cubes melted because by melting total entropy increased and entropy increase has a very high objective chance.’ What role does the chance in this explanation play? I argue that it contributes to the explanation by entailing that the melting was almost necessary, and defend the claim that the fact that some event was almost necessary can, in the right circumstances, constitute a causal explanation of that event.

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Bradford Skow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Citations of this work

Inference to the best explanation and the new size elitism1.Katrina Elliott - 2021 - Philosophical Perspectives 35 (1):170-188.

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References found in this work

Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation.Michael Strevens - 2008 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Time and chance.David Z. Albert - 2000 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Causation as influence.David Lewis - 2000 - Journal of Philosophy 97 (4):182-197.

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