If the purpose of explanation is to
increase understanding, then clearly such understanding can
be expressed in a variety of ways differing in the amount of
detail they provide. At one extreme is the initial observation
of an interesting co-occurrence, at the other is a full-blown
scientific theory. Here is an informal, ordered characterization
of forms of expression, loosely influenced by
Simon[Simon]. The
list moves from least to most detailed.
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Co-occurrence: an observation that the values
of two properties seem related
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Correlation: a statistical validation of co-occurrence
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Description: informal proposal of factors
relating to a phenomenon
indicating how the phenomenon arose; descriptions are typically
bottom-up and single level
-
Taxonomy: structural breakdown into categories
of the factors contributing to a phenomenon
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Explanation: a multi-level, fine-grained,
top-down account of why a phenomenon occurred
-
Argument: a structured explanation in
which assertions are
grounded in observations or lower-level phenomena
-
Theory: rigorous, comprehensive and
general characterization of
a class of related phenomena. A theory is typically capable of
generating predictions of different kinds of phenomena and in
a range of contexts. Theories often also support validation via
modeling and simulation