Читать книгу The Philosopher's Toolkit - Julian Baggini, Julian Baggini - Страница 17

‘Arguments’ are to be distinguished from ‘explanations’. A general rule to keep in mind is that arguments attempt to demonstrate that something is true, while explanations attempt to show how something is true. For example, consider encountering an apparently dead woman. An explanation of the woman’s death would undertake to show how it happened. (‘The existence of water in her lungs explains the death of this woman.’) An argument would undertake to demonstrate that the person is in fact dead (‘Since her heart has stopped beating and there are no other vital signs, we can conclude that she is in fact dead.’) or that one explanation is better than another (‘The absence of bleeding from the laceration on her head combined with water in the lungs indicates that this woman died from drowning and not from bleeding.’)