ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents an exposition and defence of the instance view: the account of explanation that has been held up as the author preferred position. He discusses that the instance view fares much better with respect to the sort of explanation than either the well-known theory of scientific explanation of C. Hempel or the causal account of explanation of W. Salmon. The author shows that the instance view is not subject to the problem of asymmetries, and that it enables us to give satisfactory solutions to the problem of errors and the problem of theoretical models. Hempel’s theory does not allow for explanations on the basis of theoretical models, such as the shell model of the nucleus, or on the basis of ‘laws’ that are known to be false, such as the ideal gas law. It should be pointed out that Salmon is at pains to distinguish causal processes from pseudoprocesses.
