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This 3 page paper provides a critique of Hempel's deductive-nomological model of explanation. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: MH11_MHDedNom.rtf
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model to create logical, systematic explanations for scientific principles and laws, critics have argued that this model does not illuminate on the nature of explanation. Instead, the basis of
the deductive-nomological (D-N) model is in a simplistic view of scientific principles without viewing specific illuminating conditions or assessing the potential for contradictory views. The D-N model, then, is
based in the statistical certainty of conditions occurring and lacks application when applying the model to prediction (Wikipedia, 2005). In order to understand the flaws in the
D-N model, it is necessary to understand some of the principle structures. The D-N model is based first in the presentation of what is believed to be a scientific
fact that must be explained (called an explanandum) and the presentation of subsequent scientific laws or specific limiting conditions that are applied to the explanadum (called explanans) (Murzi, 2005).
The successful scientific explanation, then, is one in which the explanans are all true, thereby creating a correlate with the explanandum also being found to be true (Murzi, 2005).
The D-N, then, is based on the link between explanadum and explanans: the logical outcome of explanans that are known to be true and applied to an explanadum is
an explanadum that is validated. The basis for the model, then, may in fact be where its limits lie. While it can be argued that the D-N model reduces
scientific explanations to "a logical relationship between statements" (specifically, the explanandum is a consequence of the explanans), extra conditions, exceptions or specific pragmatic elements that are required to round out
explanations are not included as a part of the model. The argument against Hempel and Oppenheims D-N model, then, is that scientific theory is often derivative, based in the
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