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Dan Baras, Calling for Explanation, Oxford University Press, 2022, 200pp., $97.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780197633649.
Reviewed by Harjit Bhogal, University of Maryland, College Park
Dan Baras’s excellent book investigates the phenomenon that some facts seem to be striking or to call out for explanationmore than others. As Baras discusses (section 1.1), this phenomenon plays a central role in arguments across philosophy. For example, fine-tuning arguments for theism often involve the claim that the hospitability of the universe to life stands in need of explanation and arguments for mathematical platonism stress that the striking correlation between our mathematical beliefs and the mathematical truths demands explanation.
It’s not just philosophy. Here is an example from scientific practice—in particular, cosmology—that I think illustrates the importance of the phenomenon.[1]
Consider the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB)—radiation that is ‘left over’ from the Big Bang. Interestingly, the temperature of the CMB is…
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