Explanation & Laws

A topic within Philosophy of Science, itself one of 12 topics in that field and part of Philosophy.

Reading on Explanation & Laws

2 works

Paper1948

Studies in the Logic of Explanation

Carl Hempel & Paul Oppenheim

Sets out the deductive-nomological model, on which a scientific explanation is a valid deduction of the fact to be explained from a general law plus the relevant initial conditions.

link checked 17 Sept 2026

Philosophy · Philosophy of Science

FreeAdvanced

Book1984

Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World

Wesley Salmon

Argues that a genuine scientific explanation must trace the causal processes that produced an event, not merely subsume it under a covering law.

Philosophy · Philosophy of Science

PaidAdvanced

Reading on Explanation & Laws

Studies in the Logic of Explanation

Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World

Other topics in Philosophy of Science