Metaphysical Explanation by Constraint

Erkenntnis 84 (6):1325-1340 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

It is often thought that metaphysical grounding underwrites a distinctive sort of metaphysical explanation. However, it would be a mistake to think that all metaphysical explanations are underwritten by metaphysical grounding. In service of this claim, I offer a novel kind of metaphysical explanation called metaphysical explanation by constraint, examples of which have been neglected in the literature. I argue that metaphysical explanations by constraint are not well understood as grounding explanations.

Similar books and articles

Grounding and Metaphysical Explanation.Naomi Thompson - 2016 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 116 (3):395-402.
Grounding-mechanical explanation.Kelly Trogdon - 2018 - Philosophical Studies 175 (6):1289-1309.
Essence Facts and Explanation.Chris Tillman - 2016 - Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 5 (3):190-195.
Grounding and the argument from explanatoriness.David Mark Kovacs - 2017 - Philosophical Studies 174 (12):2927-2952.
Metaphysical Interdependence.Naomi Thompson - 2016 - In Mark Jago (ed.), Reality Making. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 38-56.
Grounding: it’s (probably) all in the head.Kristie Miller & James Norton - 2017 - Philosophical Studies 174 (12):3059-3081.
Explanation in Metaphysics?Johannes Persson - 2011 - Metaphysica 12 (2):165-181.
Grounding, scientific explanation, and Humean laws.Marc Lange - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 164 (1):255-261.
Metaphysical Explanatory Asymmetries.Jan Willem Wieland & Erik Weber - 2010 - Logique and Analyse 53 (211):345-365.
Essentialist Explanation.Martin Glazier - 2017 - Philosophical Studies 174 (11):2871-2889.
Metaphysical Causation.Alastair Wilson - 2018 - Noûs 52 (4):723-751.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-06-06

Downloads
739 (#22,183)

6 months
198 (#14,432)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Michael Bertrand
Ohio State University

Citations of this work

Metaphysically explanatory unification.David Mark Kovacs - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 177 (6):1659-1683.
On Explaining Necessity by the Essence of Essence.Carlos Romero - forthcoming - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.

View all 9 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Writing the Book of the World.Theodore Sider - 2011 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation.Michael Strevens - 2008 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
The metaphysics within physics.Tim Maudlin - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
A World of States of Affairs.D. M. Armstrong - 1997 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

View all 59 references / Add more references