Search
Search
Calling for Explanation
Calling for Explanation

Date

source

share

2024.11.2 : View this Review Online | View Recent NDPR Reviews

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…

Read More

Read the full article which is published on Notre Dame's Philosophical Reviews (external link)

More
articles

More
news

What is Disagreement?

What is Disagreement?

This is Part 1 of a 4-part series on the academic, and specifically philosophical study of disagreement. In this series...

Do refugees have obligations?

Do refugees have obligations?

From 'small boats' to the Mexican border, refugees fleeing conflict, persecution, or those seeking a better life dominate our headlines....

Asexuality and Epicureanism

Asexuality and Epicureanism

What makes sex desirable? Aren’t there lots of risks and downsides? Unless you’re trying to reproduce, why have sex at...