Deductive-nomological model

An account of scientific explanation in which a phenomenon is deduced from general laws and particular initial conditions. It treats explanation as an argument whose premises entail the event being explained.

Explanans and explanandum: The explanans is the set of statements offered as an explanation; the explanandum is the statement describing what is to be explained. The model divides an explanation into premises and the event those premises are meant to entail.
Carl Hempel: A German-American philosopher of science whose work shaped twentieth-century accounts of scientific explanation. Hempel formulated the model with Paul Oppenheim and defended its account of explanation.
Inductive-statistical model: An account of explanation in which an event is supported probabilistically by statistical laws and particular conditions. Unlike the deductive model, this account allows premises to support an event without entailing it.
Flagpole and shadow paradox: A thought experiment in which a flagpole’s height can be deduced from its shadow and the sun’s angle, despite the shadow not causing the pole’s height. It shows that a valid derivation may explain a measurement without identifying the relevant causal direction.
Deductive reasoning: Reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from its premises. The model requires its explanandum to follow deductively from the explanans.
Paul Oppenheim: A philosopher of science who coauthored a landmark account of scientific explanation with Carl Hempel. His collaboration with Hempel introduced the model in a 1948 paper.
Causal-mechanical explanation: An explanation that accounts for a phenomenon by identifying the causal processes and mechanisms that produce it. A derivation from laws can fit the model without identifying the event’s producing causes.
Explanatory relevance: The requirement that premises in an explanation bear a meaningful connection to the phenomenon being explained. A derivation may include irrelevant premises, raising doubts about the model’s sufficiency.
Scientific law: A general statement describing a regularity or relation in nature, often used to support scientific explanations and predictions. General laws supply the universal premises from which the model derives particular events.
Studies in the Logic of Explanation: A 1948 paper by Carl Hempel and Paul Oppenheim that set out a systematic account of scientific explanation. This paper presents the classic formulation of the deductive-nomological model.

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