Introduction: Grounding Then and Now

This volume examines the conceptions of non-causal explanations (also called grounding claims) that were developed by philosophers and theologians working in the Aristotelian tradition from the Middle Ages onward. A distinctive feature of medieval models of explanation is that they predate the divide between explanations in the humanities and social sciences and explanations in the natural sciences (e.g. physics, chemistry, and biology) that has become central in the theory of explanation in the modern period. For Aristotle, there are several types of causal explanation, but all correct explanations are causal. Causal explanations are used in very different disciplines, ranging from theology to physics to ethics and politics. Medieval theologians and philosophers, however, adopted a pluralist model of explanation. They accepted that some forms of non-causal explanation are valid, such as the account of the Trinitarian relationships, as well as mathematical proofs, explanations of human behaviour, and the validity of logical consequences. This volume gathers studies that examine the core philosophical assumptions, motivations, and concepts that lie behind the acceptance of non-causal forms of explanation in the medieval period.