The Instrumental Value of Explanations
Abstract
Scientific and ‘intuitive’ or ‘folk’ theories are typically characterized as serving three critical functions: prediction, explanation, and control. While prediction and control have clear instrumental value, the value of explanation is less transparent. This paper reviews an emerging body of research from the cognitive sciences suggesting that the process of seeking, generating, and evaluating explanations in fact contributes to future prediction and control, albeit indirectly by facilitating the discovery and confirmation of instrumentally valuable theories. Theoretical and empirical considerations also suggest why explanations may nonetheless feel intrinsically valuable. The paper concludes by considering some implications of the psychology of explanation for a naturalized philosophy of explanation.
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We are particularly interested in causal explanations because they provide us with reliable means to affect and predict our surroundings.
“Philosophical and empirical research has converged on the thesis that we are particularly interested in causal explanations because they provide us with reliable means to affect and predict our surroundings”
From AI, Opacity, and Personal Autonomy (2022) · cites this paper as Lombrozo, 2011
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Eight Other Questions about Explanation
Potochnik, A. (2018) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198777946.003.0004 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
What Is the Relation between Facts and Values in Biological Science?
Friese, C., & Prainsack, B. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108648981.014 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Do mathematical explanations have instrumental value?
Morris, R. L. (2019) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-019-02114-y · Cited by 3 · see citing works
But Why?: Children’s belief in the necessity of explanations
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Seeking Ideal Explanations in a Non-Ideal World.
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Self-citationExplainable Inference in the FRANK Query Answering System
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How Can Conceptual Analysis Contribute to Scientific Practice?
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What Is the Nature of Theories and Models in Biology?
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Comparing Gender Hierarchy and Evolutionary Psychology Explanations of Workplace Sexual Harassment
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What Is the Basis of Biological Classification?
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What’s the Point of Understanding?
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How Do Concepts Contribute to Scientific Advancement?
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A Philosopher in the Age of Creationism
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Children selectively endorse speculative conjectures
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- Authors
- Lombrozo, T.
- Affiliations
- University of California System (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lombrozo, Tania
- ORCID
- Lombrozo, Tania
- Venue
- Philosophy Compass
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-08
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 539-551
- ISSN
- 1747-9991 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1903964690
- Cited by
- 118
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 14.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Philosophy Compass (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy and History of Science
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy, Science, and History
- Keywords
- explanation, prediction, control, folk theories, scientific theories, cognitive science, theory evaluation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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