CALL FOR PAPERS: The Nature and Norms of Scientific Explanation

Special Issue
Submissions are invited for a guest-edited special issue on scientific explanation. Of particular interest are submissions on (i) the nature of explanation, with special attention to foundational debates between the ontic (‘OC’) and epistemic (‘EC’) conceptions, and on (ii) the norms of scientific explanation, with special attention to so-called ‘ontic’ and ‘epistemic’ norms (intelligibility, accuracy, idealization, completeness, fecundity, etc.). Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

· Developments or critiques of OC or EC,
· Explanatory metatheory,
· Explanatory vehicles,
· Fact causation and explanation,
· Idealization, abstraction, or model-based fictions in explanations,
· Non-causal or mathematical explanation,
· Metaphysics of systems explanation,
· Evaluating explanatory goodness in science,
· Norms and aims of scientific explanations.

The special issue will offer philosophers of science an opportunity to evaluate these two conceptions and to survey whether any consensus has been achieved on foundational debates, aiming to help settle what it can.

Dates
Full paper submission extended deadline: May 1st 2023

Journal
Philosophical Problems in Science (Polish: Zagadnienia Filozoficzne w Nauce (‘ZFN’)) is the oldest Polish journal dedicated specifically to philosophical problems involved in and intertwined with modern science (see Journal History). ZFN is an independent peer-review journal affiliated with the Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Kraków, and is part of the Open Access movement (much like the journals Philosophers’ Imprint and Ergo). All published articles are made freely and permanently accessible online upon publication, without charges for article processing, access, or subscription, embargo periods, or user registration.

Submissions
Submissions must be made through the ZFN website. In the ‘section’ menu, be sure to select the special issue (‘Scientific Explanation’). Manuscripts should not exceed 10k words. All submissions are subject to the journal’s policies of peer-review and will conform to the ethical expectations. For more information about submission, see author guidelines. For further questions about this special issue, contact Cory Wright cory.wright@csulb.edu or Ning Shao ning.shao01@student.csulb.edu.