[Revised entry by Andrew Brenner, Anna-Sofia Maurin, Alexander Skiles, Robin Stenwall, and Naomi Thompson on October 5, 2026.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Explanation comes in many forms. Scientific explanations typically concern the natural world, and typically proceed by citing causes of natural phenomena or subsuming them under empirical laws in some illuminating way. Mathematical explanations typically concern the world of quantity and abstract structure, and typically proceed by proving a theorem in some illuminating way. The…

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