Explanation and Understanding
E930424
Explanation and Understanding is a 1971 philosophical work by G. H. von Wright that examines the nature of explanation in the human and social sciences, contrasting it with scientific explanation in the natural sciences.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Explanation and Understanding canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11507835 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Explanation and Understanding Context triple: [G. H. von Wright, notableWork, Explanation and Understanding]
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A.
Understanding
"Understanding" is a song by American rock musician Bob Seger, released as one of the singles in his discography.
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B.
Understand
"Understand" is a song included in the setlist of the Back to Basics Tour, likely performed as part of the artist's exploration of classic and personal themes during the concert series.
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C.
Human Understanding
Human Understanding is a philosophical work by Stephen Toulmin that examines the nature of human rationality, reasoning, and the development of knowledge.
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D.
Verstehen
Verstehen is a key concept in the human sciences denoting an interpretive, empathetic understanding of social and historical life from the actor’s own perspective.
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E.
“Understand”
"Understand" is a track from The Roots’ concept album …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, contributing to the record’s dark, socially conscious narrative.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Explanation and Understanding Target entity description: Explanation and Understanding is a 1971 philosophical work by G. H. von Wright that examines the nature of explanation in the human and social sciences, contrasting it with scientific explanation in the natural sciences.
-
A.
Understanding
"Understanding" is a song by American rock musician Bob Seger, released as one of the singles in his discography.
-
B.
Understand
"Understand" is a song included in the setlist of the Back to Basics Tour, likely performed as part of the artist's exploration of classic and personal themes during the concert series.
-
C.
Human Understanding
Human Understanding is a philosophical work by Stephen Toulmin that examines the nature of human rationality, reasoning, and the development of knowledge.
-
D.
Verstehen
Verstehen is a key concept in the human sciences denoting an interpretive, empathetic understanding of social and historical life from the actor’s own perspective.
-
E.
“Understand”
"Understand" is a track from The Roots’ concept album …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, contributing to the record’s dark, socially conscious narrative.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical work ⓘ |
| academicDiscipline |
philosophy
ⓘ
philosophy of science ⓘ philosophy of social science ⓘ |
| addressesQuestion |
difference between causal explanation and understanding of meaning
ⓘ
how reasons explain actions ⓘ whether human action can be explained by natural-scientific methods ⓘ |
| arguesFor |
distinctiveness of explanation in the human sciences
ⓘ
importance of understanding intentional action ⓘ |
| associatedWithPhilosopher | Georg Henrik von Wright NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| author |
G. H. von Wright
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Georg Henrik von Wright NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | scientific explanation in the natural sciences ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Finland ⓘ |
| critiques | covering-law model of explanation ⓘ |
| examines |
nature of explanation in the human sciences
ⓘ
nature of explanation in the social sciences ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
reasons as causes debate
ⓘ
relationship between explanation and understanding ⓘ |
| genre |
philosophy of science
ⓘ
philosophy of social science ⓘ |
| hasImpactOn |
action theory
ⓘ
debates about explanation vs understanding ⓘ interpretive social science ⓘ methodology of the social sciences ⓘ |
| hasTheoreticalOrientation |
anti-reductionism in social science
ⓘ
interpretivism ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Hempelian covering-law model
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Max Weber NERFINISHED ⓘ Wilhelm Dilthey NERFINISHED ⓘ logical empiricism ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
action explanation
ⓘ
causal explanation ⓘ explanation ⓘ human sciences ⓘ intentional explanation ⓘ interpretation ⓘ natural sciences ⓘ social sciences ⓘ understanding ⓘ |
| notableFor |
defense of the autonomy of the human sciences
ⓘ
systematic analysis of explanation in human and social sciences ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | analytic philosophy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1971 ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Explanation in the Social Sciences
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Philosophy of Social Science NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Explanation and Understanding Description of subject: Explanation and Understanding is a 1971 philosophical work by G. H. von Wright that examines the nature of explanation in the human and social sciences, contrasting it with scientific explanation in the natural sciences.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.