ABSTRACT
For explaining natural phenomena, Hempel has presented his covering law model of explanations, in two different forms: (1) deductive-nomological and (2) statistical or probabilistic. These explanations precisely consist of certain law or laws together with certain initial conditions as explanans statement from which the explanandum statement follows. In a deductive nomological form of explanation, the explanandum is a logical consequence of the explanans. The use of general empirical law is essential for this form of explanation because it is by virtue of these laws that the particular facts become able to explain the explanandum phenomenon. The used general empirical law should be genuinely universal law, not an accidental generalisation. The laws-initial condition-explanandum model is also used in the statistical or probabilistic form of explanation. The main difference lies in the nature of law or laws which are employed. Whereas the laws employed in the D-N explanation are genuinely universal laws, the laws employed in the statistical explanations are merely probabilistic in nature. So consequently, the explanandum follows from the explanans with a logical certainty in the D-N explanation, but in the case of statistical-probabilistic explanation, the explanandum is derived from the explanans only with a kind of ‘practical’ certainty or with a very high degree of probability
