philosophy

1. PHILOSOPHY PRESENTATION
BY SAISHA & SHREYANSH

2. INTRODUCTION
• Defining explanation philosophically. The explanation and explainee's
understanding determine the issue's available responses (McEwan & Bul,
1991).
• Achinstein's (1971) broad model for teaching states that an explanation's
quality (E) depends on three factors: the explanation's type (A), the question
being asked (q), and the receiver (W) (S). E may be anything that illuminates
S, from a single fact to a paragraph. S must understand q to believe E.
• They depend on S community knowledge and ideals. E = f(A, q, S)
simplifies this model.

3. WHAT IS EXPLANATION?
An explanation is a series of assertions that have been crafted in order to describe a selection of facts and
occurrences. The purpose of providing an explanation is to describe how and why things occur in the way
that they do. It is an explanation that makes sense in light of a generally recognized reality. As an
illustration, you may say something like, "I am running late for the meeting since my train was late."

4. • Horwood (1988), a science teacher and curriculum designer, linked instructors' explanations to "curriculum
emphases" (1982).
• Three sorts of explanations present science differently and provide teachers various roles. Horwood noted
that research explanations varied from teaching explanations.
• He believes research explanations are about something, but teaching explanations are for someone.
Research explanations "should not be concerned with whether or whether the audience, if any, has grasped
the explanation" (p.43). However,
• Horwood states that "the learner must grasp (leaving no unanswered questions) and future learning must
not be held down" while explaining (p.43).
TYPES OF
EXPLANATIONS…

5. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXPLAIN AND DESCRIBE
• Horwood (1988) distinguishes describing a phenomena from understanding it. He believes certain facts are
independent of theories and that using the words interchangeably in textbooks and exams produces
misunderstanding.
• He calls descriptions "pure information, isolated and without a network of relatedness" and explanations
"information with connections, a relationship established on a system of causation" (p.41).
• Palland (1993) found that pupils conflate what-questions (observe/describe) and why-questions (explain),
creating the framework for absolute truths in classroom science

6. WHAT IS AN
ARGUMENT?
• An argument might include two people screaming, disagreeing, or
talking over one other. I'm reminded of Monty Python's funny debate
clinic. In philosophy, "argument" has a specific meaning. But
Philosophy arguments are supported by premises and conclusions.
• The premises supposedly establish the conclusion. A good argument
has hard-to-refute premises and a logical conclusion. Deductive
arguments state that the conclusion must follow, whereas inductive
arguments just support the conclusion.
• There are two ways to disagree with someone. You might argue that
one of the premises is false or unsupported by the evidence, or that
the conclusion does not flow from the premises.

7. • Every Argument Has Some Elements That Are Similar When Explained. The distinction between explanation and
argument is very significant due to the fact that explanations and arguments both make use of words that are
commonly recognized as logical indicators.
• These words include "because," "for," "so," "since," and "hence," among others. Sometimes paragraphs that seem to
be arguments are actually explanations of something else, even though they give the appearance that they are
arguments. Lets compare the following passages
 Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in
and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. —Matt. 7:19
 Therefore it is the name of it [the tower] called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the
earth —Gen. 11:19

8. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXPLANATION AND
ARGUMENTS
• Arguments and explanations share a lot of common features. In fact, it can be hard to tell the difference between them if you look just at
the structure. Sometimes, the exact same structure can function as an argument or as an explanation depending on the context.
• At the same time, arguments are very different in terms of what they try to accomplish. Explaining and arguing are very different
activities even though they use the same types of structures.
• In a similar vein, building something and taking it apart are two very different activities, but we typically use the same tools for both.
• Arguments and explanations both have a single sentence as their primary focus. In an argument, we call that sentence the “conclusion”,
it’s what’s being argued for.
• In an explanation, that sentence is called the “explanandum”, it’s what’s being explained. All of the other sentences in an argument or
explanation are focused on the conclusion or explanandum.
• In an argument, these other sentences are called “premises” and they provide basic reasons for thinking that the conclusion is true. In an
explanation, these other sentences are called the “explanans” and provide information about how or why the explanandum is true. So in
both cases we have a bunch of sentences all focused on one single sentence. That’s why it’s easy to confuse arguments and explanations,
they have a similar structure.

9. EXAMPLES:
1. Humans have varying skin colors as a consequence of the distance our ancestors lived from the Equator. It’s all about
sun. Skin color is what regulates our body’s reaction to the sun and its rays. Dark skin evolved to protect the body from
excessive sun rays. Light skin evolved when people migrated away from the Equator and needed to make vitamin D in
their skin. To do that they had to lose pigment. Repeatedly over history, many people moved dark to light and light to
dark. That shows that color is not a permanent trait
—Nina Jablonski, “The Story of Skin,” The New York Times, 9 January 2007
Solution: This is basically a reason why. People have different skin colours, which is what is being talked about. The
reason is that different skin colors came about because people moved away from the Equator and needed different amounts
of protection from the sun depending on how far away they were from it. One way to look at the passage is as an argument
whose point is that skin color is not something that stays the same for everyone. According to this way of looking at the
passage, all of the ideas before the last sentence are the premises.

10. THANK YOU!