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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Functional explanations are legitimate explanations in which a cause is explained by reference to its effect

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    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Causes must temporally precede their effects, so an effect cannot explain why its cause occurred without vicious circularity.
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    • 2.In 'birds have hollow bones because they facilitate flight,' the effect (flight facilitation) existed after the cause (bone structure), making the explanatory arrow run backwards in time.
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    • 3.Hempel's deductive-nomological model requires that explanatory factors be antecedent or simultaneous conditions, not subsequent consequences of what is explained.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Functional explanations are legitimate only when a feedback mechanism is specified that selects for the trait because of its consequences, as Elster argued against Cohen's structural Marxism.
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    • 2.Without identifying the concrete causal mechanism—such as natural selection or intentional reinforcement—citing an effect as explanatory is merely a promissory note, not an explanation.
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    • 3.Cohen's own defense of functional explanation in 'Karl Marx's Theory of History' was undermined by his inability to specify the selection mechanism operating on social structures.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Birds have hollow bones because hollow bones facilitate flight is an accepted explanatory statement
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    • 2.In this statement, hollow bones (a cause) is explained by the fact that hollow bones facilitate flight (an effect)
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    • 3.Where e is a cause and f is its effect, functional explanations hold that e occurred because the situation was such that an event like e would cause an event like f
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