Contemporary Metaethics by Miller Alexander

Author:Miller, Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley

8.6 Vindicatory Explanation

What is a vindicatory explanation? The idea is due to David Wiggins (see, e.g., his 1991), and has been developed somewhat by Crispin Wright (1992: chapter 5). In what follows I rely heavily on Wright’s exposition and development of Wiggins.

Why might one conclude that the subject matter of a region of discourse cannot figure ineliminably in the best explanation of our experience? One straightforward way to this conclusion would be to construe the sort of explanation in question as causal explanation and then advert to the fact that the subject matter of the discourse is incapable of entering into any causal relations. An example would be mathematical discourse, if the subject matter of mathematics is conceived of as abstract and so incapable, by its very nature, of entering into causal relations. Wiggins suggests that this route to the conclusion can be blocked if we question whether the explanation concerned always has to be causal. As Wright puts it, Wiggins questions the claim that:

the belief that ‘People think that P because P’ can be an acceptable claim only where we may conceive of the fact, or state of affairs that P as situated in the causal swim … and thus as a potentially direct causal source of people’s beliefs about it. (1992: 184)

Rather, we should ask whether an explanation of the following form – a ‘vindicatory explanation’ – is possible:

For this, that and the other reason (here the explainer specifies these), there is really nothing else to think but that P; so it is a fact that P; so given the circumstances and given the subject’s cognitive capacities and opportunities and given his access to what leaves nothing else to think but that P, no wonder he believes that P. (Wiggins 1991: 66)

As an example, he cites the following vindicatory explanation of his young son’s and his classmates’ belief that 7 + 5 = 12:

The best explanation of why they all believe this is not that they have learnt and taken on trust the one truth ‘7 + 5 = 12’ but (I hope and believe this):

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.