인문과학에 있어서의 과학적 설명

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to throw light on the role and status of scientific explanation within the system of the humanistic disciplines. The main arguments revolve around a critical examination of positivistic monism which sees in the nomological-deductive model of explanation (interpreted broadly so as to include the probabilistic) the sole legitimate mode of explanation in all systematic cognitive endeavors. Science is an intellectual activity that aims at knowledge of a given realm of phenomena. Such a knowledge, when systematized into a body of statements which explain the phenomena in question, constitutes a particular branch of science, whether it is a natural, social or humanistic one. Explanation is both the method of arriving at, as well as the systematic expression of such a knowledge. Explanation as the method is closely connected with the character and structure of the objects to be explained. If the phenomena are of essentially the same character and structure despite their apparent differences, the one single mode of explanantion would suffice for the construction of knowledge. If on the other hand they are fundamentally different character and structure, modes of explanation cannot but be diverse.