WordNet

define; "The committee explained their plan for fund-raising to the Dean"
make plain and comprehensible; "He explained the laws of physics to his students" (同)explicate
serve as a means of expressing something; "The flower represents a young girl"
create an image or likeness of; "The painter represented his wife as a young girl" (同)interpret
take the place of or be parallel or equivalent to; "Because of the sound changes in the course of history, an h in Greek stands for an s in Latin" (同)stand_for, correspond
be a delegate or spokesperson for; represent somebodys interest or be a proxy or substitute for, as of politicians and office holders representing their constituents, or of a tenant representing other tenants in a housing dispute; "I represent the silent majority"
be representative or typical for; "This period is represented by Beethoven"
describe or present, usually with respect to a particular quality; "He represented this book as an example of the Russian 19th century novel"
point out or draw attention to in protest or remonstrance; "our parents represented to us the need for more caution"
a statement that makes something comprehensible by describing the relevant structure or operation or circumstances etc.; "the explanation was very simple"; "I expected a brief account" (同)account
the act of explaining; making something plain or intelligible; "I heard his explanation of the accident"
thought that makes something comprehensible
a visual representation (a picture or diagram) that is used make some subject more pleasing or easier to understand
artwork that helps make something clear or attractive
supply with illustrations; "illustrate a book with drawings"
depict with an illustration
that provides interpretation (同)interpretive
not explained; "accomplished by some unexplained process"
having the reason or cause not made clear; "an unexplained error"
capable of being understood; "explainable phenomena" (同)interpretable

PrepTutorEJDIC

…‘を'『説明する』,はっきりさせる;…‘を'釈明する / 〈物事が〉…‘の'原因(理由)となる / (…を)説明する,弁明する《+『on』+『名』》
〈記号・文字・事物が〉…‘を'『表す』,象徴する / (記号・文字・事物によって)…‘を'表す・…‘を'『代表する』,‘の'代理をする / 〈絵画・彫刻などが〉…‘を'描写する,表現する / …‘を'(典型)である / 《『represent』+『名』+『as』(『to』『be』)+『名』(『形』)》(ある性質を持つものとして)…‘を'述べる(describe)
…‘を'再び贈る,再び差し出す / 〈劇など〉‘を'再演する
〈U〉〈C〉(…の)『説明』,解説,弁明《+『of』+『名』》 / 〈C〉(…の)説明(弁明)となる事(物)《+『of』(『for』)+『名』》
〈C〉(説明などのための)『例』,実例(example) / 〈U〉(実例・図版・表などによる)(…の)説明,例証《+『of』+『名』》 / 〈C〉『挿絵』,説明図,図版,イラスト
…‘を'『説明する』,例証する / 〈本・雑誌など〉‘に'図解(挿絵)を入れる
意味を明らかにするのに役立つ,説明的な
説明されない
説明できる;弁明しうる
解説する人,説明者

Wikipedia preview

出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2015/08/05 10:43:31」(JST)

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An explanation is a set of statements constructed to describe a set of facts which clarifies the causes, context, and consequences of those facts.

This description may establish rules or laws, and may clarify the existing ones in relation to any objects, or phenomena examined. The components of an explanation can be implicit, and be interwoven with one another.

An explanation is often underpinned by an understanding that is represented by different media such as music, text, and graphics. Thus, an explanation is subjected to interpretation, and discussion.

In scientific research, explanation is one of several "purposes" for empirical research.^[1] ^[2] Explanation is a way to uncover new knowledge, and to report relationships among different aspects of studied phenomena. Explanation attempts to answer the "why" question. Explanations have varied explanatory power. The formal hypothesis is the theoretical tool used to verify explanation in empirical research. ^[3] ^[4]

Arguments

While arguments attempt to show that something is, will be, or should be the case, explanations try to show why or how something is or will be. If Fred and Joe address the issue of whether or not Fred's cat has fleas, Joe may state: "Fred, your cat has fleas. Observe the cat is scratching right now." Joe has made an argument that the cat has fleas. However, if Fred and Joe agree on the fact that the cat has fleas, they may further question why this is so and put forth an explanation: "The reason the cat has fleas is that the weather has been damp." The difference is that the attempt is not to settle whether or not some claim is true, but to show why it is true.

In this sense, arguments aim to contribute knowledge, whereas explanations aim to contribute understanding.

Arguments and explanations largely resemble each other in rhetorical use. This is the cause of much difficulty in thinking critically about claims. There are several reasons for this difficulty.

People often are not themselves clear on whether they are arguing for or explaining something.
The same types of words and phrases are used in presenting explanations and arguments.
The terms 'explain' or 'explanation,' et cetera are frequently used in arguments.
Explanations are often used within arguments and presented so as to serve as arguments.

Justification

Justification is the reason why someone properly holds a belief, the explanation as to why the belief is a true one, or an account of how one knows what one knows. In much the same way arguments and explanations may be confused with each other, so too may explanations and justifications. Statements which are justifications of some action take the form of arguments. For example attempts to justify a theft usually explain the motives (e.g., to feed a starving family).

It is important to be aware when an explanation is not a justification. A criminal profiler may offer an explanation of a suspect's behavior (e.g.; the person lost their job, the person got evicted, etc.). Such statements may help us understand why the person committed the crime, however an uncritical listener may believe the speaker is trying to gain sympathy for the person and his or her actions. It does not follow that a person proposing an explanation has any sympathy for the views or actions being explained. This is an important distinction because we need to be able to understand and explain terrible events and behavior in attempting to discourage it.

Types

There are many and varied events, objects, and facts which require explanation. So too, there are many different types of explanation. Aristotle recognized at least four types of explanation. Other types of explanation are Deductive-nomological, Functional, Historical, Psychological, Reductive, Teleological, Methodological explanations.

Meta-explanation

The notion of meta-explanation is important in behavioral scenarios that involve conflicting agents. In these scenarios, implicit of or explicit conflict can be caused by contradictory agents' interests, as communicated in their explanations for why they behaved in a particular way, by a lack of knowledge of the situation, or by a mixture of explanations of multiple factors. In many cases to assess the plausibility of explanations, one must analyze two following components and their interrelations: (1) explanation at the actual object level (explanation itself) and (2) explanation at the higher level (meta-explanation). Comparative analysis of the roles of both is conducted to assess the plausibility of how agents explain the scenarios of their interactions.^[5] Object-level explanation assesses the plausibility of individual claims by using a traditional approach to handle argumentative structure of a dialog. Meta-explanation links the structure of a current scenario with that of previously learned scenarios of multi-agent interaction. The scenario structure includes agents' communicative actions and argumentation defeat relations between the subjects of these actions. The data for both object-level and meta-explanation can be visually specified,and a plausibility of how agent behavior in a scenario can be visually explained. Meta-explanation in the form of machine learning of scenario structure can be augmented by conventional explanation by finding arguments in the form of defeasibility analysis of individual claims, to increase the accuracy of plausibility assessment.^[6]

A ratio between object-level and meta-explanation can be defined as the relative accuracy of plausibility assessment based on the former and latter sources. The groups of scenarios can then be clustered based on this ratio; hence, such a ratio is an important parameter of human behavior associated with explaining something to other humans.

External links

Explanation at PhilPapers
Scientific Explanation entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Theories of Explanation entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Explanation in several languages and meanings

UpToDate Contents

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English Journal

Characterizing inflammatory breast cancer among Arab Americans in the California, Detroit and New Jersey Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registries (1988-2008).

Hirko KA, Soliman AS, Banerjee M, Ruterbusch J, Harford JB, Chamberlain RM, Graff JJ, Merajver SD, Schwartz K.SourceDepartment of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA ; Center for Global Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA.
SpringerPlus.Springerplus.2013 Dec;2(1):3. Epub 2013 Jan 7.
INTRODUCTION: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is characterized by an apparent geographical distribution in incidence, being more common in North Africa than other parts of the world. Despite the rapid growth of immigrants to the United States from Arab nations, little is known about disease pattern
PMID 23420611

Electrochemistry of heme proteins entrapped in DNA films in two imidazolium-based room temperature ionic liquids.

Chen T, Xiong H, Wen W, Zhang X, Wang S.SourceMinistry of Education Key Laboratory for the Synthesis and Application of Organic Functional Molecules & College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, PR China.
Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands).Bioelectrochemistry.2013 Jun;91:8-14. doi: 10.1016/j.bioelechem.2012.11.002. Epub 2012 Dec 8.
Two imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs), hydrophilic 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([bmim][BF]) and hydrophobic 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([bmim][PF]), have been chosen as solvents for investigating bioelectroanalysis of four heme proteins. Heme proteins inclu
PMID 23274540

A Brief Survey on Computational Approaches to Reveal Drug and Disease Associations.

Yeh HY, Lin WC, Huang YF, Soo VW.SourceDepartment of Computer Science, National Tsing Hua University, 101, Section 2, Kuang Fu Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30013, Taiwan. soo@cs.nthu.edu.tw.
Current drug discovery technologies.Curr Drug Discov Technol.2013 Jun 1;10(2):114-124.
People worldwide are still threatened by various complex disease phenotypes, especially cancer which is usually caused by the accumulation of multi-factor-driven alterations. Although drugs achieve the therapeutic functions by targeting particular molecular, the therapies used nowadays against disea
PMID 23237674

Evolution of flavonoids in Mouratón berries taken from both bunch halves.

Figueiredo-González M, Cancho-Grande B, Boso S, Santiago JL, Martínez MC, Simal-Gándara J.SourceNutrition and Bromatology Group, Analytical and Food Chemistry Department, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, University of Vigo, Ourense Campus, E-32004 Ourense, Spain.
Food chemistry.Food Chem.2013 Jun 1;138(2-3):1868-77. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.11.083. Epub 2012 Nov 27.
Galicia (N.W. Spain) is a Spanish region with several old-traditional winegrowing areas. There are autochthonous grapevine varieties, such as Vitis vinifera L. cv. Mouratón, considered a biodiversity resource in viticulture and an opportunity for Galician sustainable wine production. Therefore, it
PMID 23411319

Japanese Journal

3次元画像特徴量を用いた蛋白質分子表面比較

車谷奈都実,大川剛直
情報処理学会研究報告. BIO, バイオ情報学 2012-BIO-29(14), 1-6, 2012-06-21
蛋白質の機能と構造の関連を明らかにする上で,その立体構造を比較し,局所的に類似した部分を見つけることが重要である.本研究では蛋白質分子表面データを3次元画像へ変換し,そこから局所特徴点を検出して特徴量を算出することにより,蛋白質の局所構造間を比較する手法を提案する.提案手法を蛋白質の結合部位予測へ適用した結果,11 個中 6 個の結合部位の予測に成功することが示されており,その有効性を確認した.
NAID 110009359899

Effects of temperature and diet on development and interspecies competition in Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus

Farjana T.,Tuno Nobuko,Higa Yukiko　
Medical and Veterinary Entomology 26(2), 210-217, 2012-06
… These species-specific attributes may help to explain the latitudinal distribution of the mosquitoes and degree of species dominance where they are sympatric. …
NAID 120003308587

縁起の思想から見たケアの関係性

坂井祐円
京都大学大学院教育学研究科紀要 58, 169-181, 2012-04-27
… We cannot really explain this structure of variable in the relationship of care as long as we have a thinking pattern that mutual communication between individuals makes a relationship. …
NAID 120004079468