Unification Explanation
To explain something is to unify it with the other things that we
know.
Literature
This model has not been developed in great detail. The main
references are
Friedman
1974 and
Kitcher
1981.
Issues
There is not much literature on this model, and so no references
for the issues.
The presentations have mainly concentrated on accounting for causal
explanation: how do functional explanations fit in?
There may be more than one way of unifying a given explanandum with
our other knowledge, and the choice may be made on pragmatic
grounds.