The Role of Unification in Micro-Explanations of Physical Laws

Abstract

In the literature on scientific explanation, there is a classical distinction between explanations of facts and explanations of laws. This paper is about explanations of laws, more specifically mechanistic explanations of laws. We investigate whether providing unificatory information in mechanistic explanations of laws has a surplus value. Unificatory information is information about how the mechanism that explains the law which is our target relates to other mechanisms (which explain other laws). We argue that providing unificatory information can lead to explanations with more explanatory power (we use Jim Woodward's concept of explanatory power for that) and that it may lead to more strongly supported explanations.