Grounds of Knowledge
Explanation
An account of why something is the case rather than merely that it is. Explanations are judged by more than accuracy: scope, simplicity, fruitfulness and the ability to say what would have happened otherwise all matter, and these criteria can pull against one another.
How claims are supported. These concepts ask what has to be in place before a claim earns the right to be believed, and what the difference is between a reason and a rationalisation.
IA prompts this concept is central to
The wording is the guide’s, exactly. Quote it as it stands.
- IA prompt 30What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the world?Imagination is how a knower reaches the candidate explanation that evidence then tests, which makes it part of enquiry rather than decoration on it.
- IA prompt 32What makes a good explanation?The prompt asks for the criteria directly, and the useful answer shows that scope, simplicity and depth can pull against each other.
Prompts where it is a useful second angle
- IA prompt 02Are some types of knowledge more useful than others?Knowledge that explains rather than merely predicts is often called more useful, which puts the criteria for a good explanation in play.
- IA prompt 06How does the way that we organize or classify knowledge affect what we know?A classification determines which explanations are even statable, because it fixes the units an explanation can be about.
- IA prompt 18Are some things unknowable?Something can be predictable and still resist explanation, which is one way a limit on knowledge shows up without being a limit on data.
Explanation under the knowledge framework
Only the elements where this concept has something substantive to say. An empty pairing is left dimmed rather than padded.
Whether a field seeks explanations at all, rather than descriptions, predictions or interpretations, is a scope question. Mathematics proves, history accounts for, the natural sciences model, and the arts can illuminate without explaining anything propositional.
Methods determine which explanations are reachable. A field that can only observe correlations will produce explanations shaped like correlations, and its inability to intervene is a fact about its tools rather than about its subject matter.