Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

223 | Tania Lombrozo on What Explanations Are

Jan 16, 2023

01:10:45

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

The Role of Explanation in Learning

02:56

The Bottoming Out of Explanations

02:18

The Role of Philosophers in the Development of Explanation Theory

03:20

Is There a Relationship Between Explanation and Cause?

02:55

Introduction

3min

Is Explaining an Understudied Area of Cognitive Psychology?

2min

Is Your Work in the Domain of Cognitive Psychology?

2min

Is It Just That Humans Are Wrong?

3min

Reproductive Fitness

2min

Why People Choose Simpler Explanations More Often Than They Should

2min

Physicists Love What Works, Right?

2min

Is There an Understanding of Why We Are Driven to Ask Questions?

3min

How to Differentiate Glorps and Drents?

2min

10.

Understanding the Structure of a Robotic Robot

2min

11.

Why We Should Prefer Simpler Explanations

2min

12.

Is There Something Going On?

2min

13.

Is There a Relationship Between Explanation and Cause?

3min

14.

What's the Most Minimal Contrast Between a Cause and an Explanation?

3min

15.

Why Mechanism Information Is So Important to Explanation

2min

16.

The Psychology of Explanation

2min

17.

Is There a Good Explanation?

2min

18.

Why People Love Predictions That Aren't Tested Yet

3min

19.

Is There Variation in Explanation?

4min

20.

Is It Almost a Mirror Neuron Situation?

2min

21.

The Storytelling End of the Spectrum Gets a Bad Rap

2min

22.

The Bottoming Out of Explanations

2min

23.

Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

2min

24.

Is There a Mystery in Science?

3min

25.

Is There a Difference Between Religious and Non Religious Explanations?

3min

26.

Are There Different Thresholds for Scientific and Religious Explanations?

3min

27.

Is It Just Hard Being a Psychotherapist to Affect Your Behavior?

3min

28.

Did the Primates Do That Also?

2min

29.

Is There a Benefit to Explaining to Yourself and Others?

3min

There are few human impulses more primal than the desire for explanations. We have expectations concerning what happens, and when what we experience differs from those expectations, we want to know the reason why. There are obvious philosophy questions here: What is an explanation? Do explanations bottom out, or go forever? But there are also psychology questions: What precisely is it that we seek when we demand an explanation? What makes us satisfied with one? Tania Lombrozo is a psychologist who is also conversant with the philosophical side of things. She offers some pretty convincing explanations for why we value explanation so highly.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Tania Lombrozo received her Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University. She is currently a professor of psychology at Princeton. Among her awards are the Gittier Award from the American Psychological Foundation, an Early Investigator Award from the Society of Experimental Psychologists, and the Stanton Prize from the Society for Philosophy and Psychology.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.