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Levels and kinds of explanation: lessons from neuropsychiatry

Wilkinson, Sam

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Authors

Sam Wilkinson



Abstract

I use an example from neuropsychiatry, namely delusional misidentification, to show a distinction between levels of explanation and kinds of explanation. Building on a pragmatic view of explanation, different kinds of explanation arise because we have different kinds of explanatory concerns. One important kind of explanatory concern involves asking a certain kind of “why” question. Answering such questions provides a personal explanation, namely, renders intelligible the beliefs and actions of other persons. I use contrasting theories of delusional misidentification to highlight how different facts about the phenomenon that is being explained impose constraints on the availability of personal explanation.

Citation

Wilkinson, S. (2014). Levels and kinds of explanation: lessons from neuropsychiatry. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, Article 373. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00373

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 18, 2014
Publication Date Apr 29, 2014
Deposit Date Feb 18, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Frontiers in Psychology
Print ISSN 1664-1078
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 5
Article Number 373
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00373
Keywords Explanation in psychology, Delusion, Personal explanation, Neuropsychiatry, Levels of explanation.

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Published Journal Article (382 Kb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2014 Wilkinson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.




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