ABSTRACT
A statement offered as explaining a certain event, say, may in fact explain that event even though no one accepts the explanation. The difference between a semantic and a scientific explanation is in this respect like the difference between statements’ being clear and its being true. The scientific explanation may be suggested and supported by the semantic one, as in the case of dream analysis. An explanation may be said to be a concatenated description. It does its work, not by invoking something beyond what might be described, but by putting one fact or law into relation with others. The various types of explanation—causal, motivational, functional, and so on—are differentiated by the nature of the general statements that serve, together with the particular antecedent conditions, as premises for the explanatory deductions. The explanation of the law is provided by the circumstance that the law can be deduced from the theory.
