Concept
Explanatory power
Overview
Explanatory power is the ability of a hypothesis or theory to explain the subject matter effectively to which it pertains. Its opposite is explanatory impotence. In the past, various criteria or measures for explanatory power have been proposed. In particular, one hypothesis, theory, or explanation can be said to have more explanatory power than another about the same subject matter, if:
more facts or observations are accounted for;
the theory changes more "surprising facts" into "a matter of course" (following Peirce);
more details of causal relations are provided, leading to a high accuracy and precision of the description;
it offers greater predictive power (if it offers more details about what should be expected to be seen and not seen);
it depends less on authorities and more on observations;
it makes fewer assumptions;
it is more falsifiable (more testable by observation or experiment, according to the philosopher Karl Popper).
it can be used to compress encoded observations into fewer bits (Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference)
Recently, David Deutsch proposed that theorists should seek explanations that are hard to vary. A theory or explanation is hard to vary if all details play a functional role, i.e., cannot be varied or removed without changing the predictions of the theory. Easy to vary (i.e., bad) explanations, in contrast, can be varied to be reconciled with new observations because they are barely connected to the details of the phenomenon of question.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
It was not the Greeks alone, who “wanted to see some reason why the physical antecedent should produce this particular consequent,” some connection “which would _per se_ carry some presumption to their own mind.” Among modern philosophers, Leibnitz laid it down as a self-evident principle that all physical causes without exception must contain in their own nature something which makes it intelligible that they…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
Close in meaning to Explanatory power; the term itself is not named.
This is already known to be the case with the first of the sciences we have mentioned, astronomy; that it is not generally recognised as true of the others, is probably one of the reasons why they are not in a more advanced state. § 4. If what is called pure observation is at so great a disadvantage, compared with artificial experimentation, in one department of the direct exploration of phenomena, there is another…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic
States what Explanatory power is.
Every explanation arrived at by the help of this clue is, as we have said, merely relative; it explains things in relation to each other, but something which indeed is presupposed is always left unexplained.
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
Close in meaning to Explanatory power; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Explanatory power
Related ideas
- Falsifiability
- Karl Popper
- Hypothesis
- Greek mythology
- Theory
- Charles Sanders Peirce
- Demeter
- David Deutsch
- Predictive power
- Hans Albert
Place in the tradition
Part of Outline of logic.