ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a simple and much-discussed problem for the received view known as the asymmetries of explanation. It suggests a project for the theory of explanation that borrows something from both, and it turns out that this project involves a multidisciplinary approach to the topic. The asymmetries of explanation show that Hempel’s account is too inclusive if it is taken to assert that anything that conforms to the deductive-nomological model is an explanation. One might, for instance, maintain that an explanation shows that something conforms to a law and that it is by virtue of this fact that it is understood. Forman provides a good deal of evidence in favour of the proposition that many Weimar physicists rejected the concept of causality and denied the existence of causal laws of nature. However, as was foreshadowed at the end of the previous paragraph, the author part of the project of ‘New Directions’ is with the instance view.
