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Two important models of explanation in science are the deductive nomological model, which emphasizes subsumption of facts under laws, and the causal model, which takes explanations to be revealing of causes. These two models of explanation are outlined and given critical scrutiny. The chapter explores what the structure of an explanatory answer to a “why?” question might be in science and outlines the important idea that to explain is to place what occurs under a generalization, exceptionless or statistical, about what kinds of things occur. It notes a number of objections to that simple notion of explanation and explores some proposals to supplement this subsumption model of explanation, including the proposal to demand that explanations in science be unifying and the proposal that a basic notion of causation is essential to our concept of explanation.

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