Carl Hempel: Explanations by Reasons

Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2 (4):503 - 522 (1973)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Carl Hempel has proposed the following model for explanations by reasons. A was in a situation of type C. A was a rational agent at the time. In a situation of type C, any rational agent will do X. Therefore, A did X.According to Hempel overcomes the shortcomings of alternative accounts of explaining by reasons such as William Dray's model, in that the so-called evaluative principle is replaced by an empirical law. It is William Dray's contention that to understand the action of a rational agent is to see that his action was appropriate in his situation. Following Dray this then means that in explaining such an action one makes use of a normative ‘principle of action', not an empirical law, which has the form ‘when in a situation of type C1… Cn the thing to do is X'.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,401

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

Reasons, Actions and Explanations.Gary Richard Weaver - 1980 - Dissertation, The University of Iowa
An Argument against Bernard Williams’ Account of Reason Internalism.Muhammad Heydarpour & Hosein Dabbagh - 2022 - Journal of Philosophical Theological Research 24 (1):21-42.
Rational Explanation in History.Howard Adelman - 1971 - Dissertation, University of Toronto (Canada)
Motivating Reasons.Stephen Everson - 2010 - In Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis, A Companion to the Philosophy of Action. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 145–152.
Reasoning with moral conflicts.John F. Horty - 2003 - Noûs 37 (4):557–605.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-05-29

Downloads
29 (#812,446)

6 months
8 (#390,329)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Philosophical Analysis.Charles A. Baylis - 1951 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 16 (4):298.

Add more references