1. How does Science explain a fact? Please use the entire explanation on. p. 91 and 92.

Science explains a fact by the examples following:

• Definition- Ex. What is photosynthesis?
• Paraphrase- restates the sense in similar or more formal words. ex what does the fire insurance plan mean?
• Rules- Ex will you explain chess to me?
• Analysis- what is logically entailed. ex Why is there no greatest prime number?
• Demonstration- showing how to do something. ex.How do you ski?
• Reasons- provides motives, beliefs, examples. ex. Why did Brutus stab Caesar?
• Universal- would require both refence to the metaphysical reasons in which both substances participate. ex. Why is snow and milk white

Science explains by "embedding it within a general law from which, along with the particular conditions involved, the fact to be explained may be logically deduced."

2. What are some common misconceptions about scientific explanations? How does Abel refute each one?

• Science describes, it doesn't explain: Able discusses how there is a very fine line between description and explanation since one leads to another. For example you can not explain something with out doing some type of describing.
• Science Explains the Strange Using the Familiar: Able disagrees with this idea, and finds it to be exactly the opposite. Things can be familiar, like baseball, but is explained using unfamiliar terms like gravity and friction.
• Scientific explanation is also not the same as understanding what is said. Understanding is more related to knowledge by acquaintance, or knowing how that science works.
• A scientific explanation doesnt have to be casual law, but it may be a law of simultaneous existence rather than order.

3. What does Abel mean when he says: "a law in turn may be explained by another law of wider scope; the greater the generality, the better the explanation." (p. 93)?

Able is basically stating that if generalizations are made then more laws cab be covered and explained by it.

4. What does Abel mean when he says: "Explanation is always relative to a given knowledge situation; you must stop somewhere." (p. 94)?

What he means is that logic can only be explained if you stopped at a certain point, you can ask for directions to a house, but not for directions to the universe.

5. Why are explanatory reductions "economical ways of describing phenomena." (p. 95)?

They take complex events and explain them much more simply by using less scientific vocab.

6. Why does scientific explanation require the concept of system?

It requires a concept of system because the concept must work together unlike a machine working indvidually.

7. Why is the theory of emergence used to explain how anything new came into the world? What counter-claim does Abel provide?

This theory is a remedy that explains how new things come into the world. Able believes that there is no way to predict things based on the points of origin.

8. Why is theory and observation interdependent in scientific explanations?

They are independent because even though a scientist can observe a certain experiment he can create a theory with things that are not directly seen. This means that a theory can existed with out observation.

9. Why is explanation in science theoretically identical to prediction? How does Abel feel about this?

An explanation is identical because you only have explained something only partial decent if you can predict the next step. Able doesn't agree with this because some theories cannot be predicted, but are still good explanations.

10. What does Abel mean when he says: 'The growth of science is not a clear-cut, straightforward progression toward a unique, all-inclusive final truth." (p. 100)?

Able means that there are many many factors that go into influencing the course of science. First there is the choice of what to study, the political and the social pressures, finical rewards, ethical incentives, expediency or state of the discipline, the urgency of the problem compared to its difficulty. Secondly there is the element of chance in the scientific progress. Third there is the element of mystery. Fourthly there are influences on the scientists conclusions, like religion, politics, philosophy.

11. According to Abel, what situations are seen by scientists as requiring explanation?

Able believes that scientist study situations that they find to be puzzling.

12. What is the role of the human element in the progress of scientific explanation?

The use of image is misleading, and we make up rules and patterns ourselves to fit into our ideas. These do not exist in nature and limits our true understandings of things.

13. Abel claims that: "Our perceptual knowledge is delimited by our characteristic biological capacities, and there are limits to the completeness of our theoretical structures. But our observations and our theories mutually reinforce each other....The structure of our science is pragmatically justified; it is the most reliable knowledge there is." (p. 105) Does this hold true in History as well?

This defiantly does hold true in history. When studyign history we place create order or events and what specific event lead to more of an influence to one event over another. We tend to place these patters to them that do not really exists, but it is the only way to make things seem logical.

14. In Bullet form, and using information from this chapter and Chapter 15 (you wrote Study Questions on November 9), please list the similarities and differences between Scientific and Historical explanations.

Similarites:

• both are tried to put into patterns
• Both have to analyze
• Both start off with little knowledge, and must go in depth research to obtain facts
• Both can have theories that can neither be proved or disproved

Differences:

• Scientist focuses more on the generalization of nature
• scientist can just record data and have it still be scientific
• Language plays a huge role in history, unlike science.