A Very Short Fact: On this day in 1905, German philosopher of science, C.G. Hempel was born in Orani

A Very Short Fact: On this day in 1905, German philosopher of science, C.G. Hempel was born in Oranienburg, Germany. He is famous for his contributions to the philosophy of science and explanation. He is known best for the “raven paradox,” which challenges our intuitions about what constitutes evidence for our beliefs.

“Hempel noted that scientific explanations are usually given in response to what he called ‘explanation-seeking why-questions’. These are questions such as ‘why is the earth not perfectly spherical?’ or ‘why do women live longer than men?’—they are demands for explanation. To give a scientific explanation is thus to provide a satisfactory answer to an explanation-seeking why-question. If we could determine the essential features that such an answer must have, we would know what scientific explanation is.

Hempel suggested that scientific explanations typically have the logical structure of an argument, i.e. a set of premises followed by a conclusion. The conclusion states that the phenomenon which needs explaining occurs, and the premises tell us why the conclusion is true. Thus suppose someone asks why sugar dissolves in water. This is an explanation-seeking why-question. To answer it, says Hempel, we must construct an argument whose conclusion is ‘sugar dissolves in water’ and whose premises tell us why this conclusion is true. The task of providing an account of scientific explanation then becomes the task of characterizing precisely the relation that must hold between a set of premises and a conclusion, in order for the former to count as an explanation of the latter. That was the problem Hempel set himself.” — From ‘Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction (2^ndedition)’ by Samir Okasha

[Pg. 37 — From ‘Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction (2^ndedition)’ by Samir Okasha.]

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