Explanatory Fictions

In what follows, I defend the view that, in some cases, fictions can genuinely explain. I begin, in section 2, by situating my approach to fictions in the context of Vaihinger’s classic account, then, in section 3, turn to the concrete case of fictional classical orbits explaining quantum spectra in modern semiclassical mechanics. In section 4, I introduce a new philosophical account of scientific explanation that I argue is capable of making sense of the explanatory power of fictions. Finally, I conclude in section 5 by relating this case study and the new philosophical account of scientific explanation back to Vaihinger’s account of fictions