A study of explanatory virtues

Resumo

The inference to the best explanation (IBE) appeals to how hypotheses would explain certain facts. If a hypothesis explains well and better than any other (available) hypotheses, IBE concludes that it is true. Our work examines what makes it the case that some hypotheses would explain facts better than others. We also examine other non-explanatory features which are (thought to be) correlated with the truth of a proposed explanation. We name all these features explanatory virtues, and they are the measure employed by IBE of goodness of explanation. Our research has the purpose of investigating four chief (proposed) explanatory virtues: simplicity, unification, non ad hocness, and coherence. We intend to study the description and justification of these proposed virtues. Our final goal is to improve and appraise the employment of IBE, a valuable tool in philosophy.