A Language-Game Justification for Narrative in Historical Explanation

The problem of historical explanation consists in how historical facts are put together. No mere collection of facts constitutes an explanation: there must be some underlying explanation for why those facts occurred in the way they did. Many competing theories of historical explanation have thus been offered, from the highly technical D-N or covering law model, to narrative-based explanations. This paper exposes the flaws in the covering law model proposed by Carl Hempel, and offers a justification for narrative-based explanations by appealing to the notion of language games as used by Ludwig Wittgenstein, as well as the narrative and paradigm models of Arthur Danto and Thomas Kuhn for explaining historical events.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Department dc:contributor.department

Philosophy

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Hall, Brayton Bruno

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Klagge, James C.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Patton, Lydia K.
• Trogdon, Kelly Griffith

• Philosophy
• History
• Explanation
• Language
• Narrative
• Covering Law
• Wittgenstein
• Danto
• Hempel
• Kuhn

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:11653

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/78239