Teleological explanations (TEs) account for the existence or properties of an entity in terms of a function: we have hearts because they pump blood, and telephones for communication. While many teleological explanations seem appropriate, others are clearly not warranted--for example, that rain exists for plants to grow. Five experiments explore the theoretical commitments that underlie teleolog...

This essay is meant for a reader who has attained a firm grasp of Bayes' Theorem. An introduction to Bayes' Theorem may be found in An Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning (Yudkowsky 2003). You should easily recognize, and intuitively understand,

Learning in multimedia environments is hard because it requires learners to actively comprehend and integrate information across diverse sources and modalities. Selfexplanation is an effective learning strategy that helps learners develop deep understanding of complex phenomena and could be used to support learning from multimedia. Researchers have established the benefits of self-explaining ac...

Social problems such as racism, sexism, and inequality are often cited structural rather than individual in nature. What does it mean to invoke a social explanation, how do explanations relate individualistic ones? This article explores recent philosophical debates concerning the nature usages of explanation. I distinguish between two central kinds explanation: those that autonomous from psycho...