A new dialectical theory of explanation

This paper offers a dialogue theory of explanation. A successful explanation is defined as a transfer of understanding in a dialogue system in which a questioner and a respondent take part. The questioner asks a special sort of why-question that asks for understanding of something and the respondent provides a reply that transfers understanding to the questioner. The theory is drawn from recent work on explanation in artificial intelligence (AI), especially in expert systems, but applies to scientific, legal and everyday conversational explanations.

[1]  M. Finocchiaro.  Galileo and the Art of Reasoning , 1980 .

[2]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  Explanation Patterns: Understanding Mechanically and Creatively , 1986 .

[3]  Chris Reed,et al.  Dialogue frames in agent communication , 1998, Proceedings International Conference on Multi Agent Systems (Cat. No.98EX160).

[4]  Wesley C. Salmon,et al.  The Importance of Scientific Understanding , 1998 .

[5]  W. H. F. Barnes.  The Nature of Explanation , 1944, Nature.

[6]  Johanna D. Moore.  Participating in explanatory dialogues , 1994 .

[7]  William H. Dray,et al.  Philosophy of History. , 1966 .

[8]  D. Walton,et al.  Commitment in Dialogue: Basic Concepts of Interpersonal Reasoning , 1995 .

[9]  Michael Scriven,et al.  Explanations, predictions, and laws , 1962 .

[10]  M. Resnik,et al.  Aspects of Scientific Explanation. , 1966 .

[11]  D. Dieks,et al.  Reduction and Understanding , 1998 .

[12]  William R. Swartout,et al.  A Reactive Approach to Explanation: Taking the User’s Feedback into Account , 1991 .

[13]  H. Feigl,et al.  Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science , 1956 .

[14]  Rudolf Carnap.  Introduction to the Philosophy of Science , 1966 .

[15]  R. Gordon.  Folk Psychology as Simulation , 1986 .

[16]  F. Keil,et al.  Explanation and understanding , 2015 .

[17]  Maurice A. Finocchiaro,et al.  Scientific Discoveries as Growth of Understanding: The Case of Newton’s Gravitation , 1980 .

[18]  Bas C. van Fraassen,et al.  The Scientific Image , 1980 .

[19]  W. Salmon.  Four decades of scientific explanation , 1989 .

[20]  R. Collingwood,et al.  The Idea of History. , 1947 .

[21]  G. Hegel,et al.  The Philosophy of History , 2010 .

[22]  J. Hage.  Reasoning with Rules: An Essay on Legal Reasoning and Its Underlying Logic , 1996 .

[23]  Munindar P. Singh.  Agent Communication Languages: Rethinking the Principles , 1998, Computer.

[24]  William B. Thompson,et al.  Reconstructive Expert System Explanation , 1992, Artif. Intell..

[25]  J. D. Trout.  Scientific Explanation And The Sense Of Understanding* , 2002, Philosophy of Science.

[26]  William C. Mann,et al.  Natural Language Generation in Artificial Intelligence and Computational Linguistics , 1990 .

[27]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  SCRIPTS, PLANS, GOALS, AND UNDERSTANDING , 1988 .

[28]  Stephen N. Thomas,et al.  Practical Reasoning in Natural Language , 1981 .

[29]  W. Dray.  History as re-enactment , 1995 .

[30]  Alison Cawsey,et al.  Explanation and interaction - the computer generation of explanatory dialogues , 1992, ACL-MIT press series in natural language processing.

[31]  Kristiina Jokinen,et al.  Explanation and Interaction: The computer generation of Explanatory Dialogues , 1996, Machine Translation.

[32]  MoulinB.,et al.  Explanation and Argumentation Capabilities , 2002 .

[33]  P. Kitcher.  Explanatory unification and the causal structure of the world , 1989 .

[34]  W. Mcd.  An Autobiography , 1904, Nature.

[35]  R. Flenley.  Collingwood’s Idea of History , 1947, Canadian Historical Review.

[36]  M. Friedman.  Explanation and Scientific Understanding , 1974 .

[37]  H. Lehman.  Statistical Explanation , 1972, Philosophy of Science.

[38]  William H. Dray,et al.  History As Re-enactment: R. G. Collingwood's Idea of History , 1999 .

[39]  C. Hempel,et al.  Aspects of Scientific Explanation and Other Essays in the Philosophy of Science. , 1966 .

[40]  B. Chandrasekaran,et al.  Generic Tasks in Knowledge-Based Reasoning: High-Level Building Blocks for Expert System Design , 1986, IEEE Expert.

[41]  Bernard Moulin,et al.  Explanation and Argumentation Capabilities:Towards the Creation of More Persuasive Agents , 2002, Artificial Intelligence Review.