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Cited by 310

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 35 of the 35 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Minimal Model Explanations

Batterman, Robert W., Rice, Collin C.·2014·Philosophy of Science
DOI 10.1086/676677
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Abstract

This article discusses minimal model explanations, which we argue are distinct from various causal, mechanical, difference-making, and so on, strategies prominent in the philosophical literature. We contend that what accounts for the explanatory power of these models is not that they have certain features in common with real systems. Rather, the models are explanatory because of a story about why a class of systems will all display the same large-scale behavior because the details that distinguish them are irrelevant. This story explains patterns across extremely diverse systems and shows how minimal models can be used to understand real systems.

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Metadata

Authors
Batterman, R. W., & Rice, C. C.
Venue
Philosophy of Science
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2014-07
Volume
81
Issue
3
Pages
349-376
ISSN
  • 0031-8248 (ISSN-L)
  • 1539-767X
DOI
10.1086/676677
OpenAlex
W1986919454
Cited by
310
References
35
FWCI
116.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Minimal Model Explanations. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1086/676677
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Batterman, R. W., & Rice, C. C. (2014). Minimal Model Explanations. Philosophy of Science. https://doi.org/10.1086/676677

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.