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On (Some) Explanations in Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

James Owen Weatherall
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Abstract

I offer an explanation of why inertial and gravitational mass are equal in Newtonian gravitation. I then argue that this is an example of a kind of explanation that is not captured by standard philosophical accounts of scientific explanation. Moreover, this form of explanation is particularly important, at least in physics, because demands for this kind of explanation are used to motivate and shape research into the next generation of physical theories. I suggest that explanations of the sort I describe reveal something important about one way in which physical theories may be related diachronically.

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Type
Research Article
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 421 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I am indebted to Kyle Stanford, Dave Baker, John Manchak, Erik Curiel, and David Malament for helpful remarks on earlier drafts of this article. Thank you, also, to the Southern California Philosophy of Physics group, in particular, Jeff Barrett, Craig Callender, and Tarun Menon, for a spirited and productive discussion of the material presented here. I am also grateful to participants in the University of California, Irvine, WIP seminar, especially Bennett McNulty, Sam Fletcher, and Cailin O'Connor, for their comments. Finally, this article benefited from the helpful remarks of two anonymous referees.

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