Explication (german: Explikation) is the process of drawing out the meaning of something which is not clearly defined, so as to make explicit what is currently left implicit. The term ''explication'' is used in both

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...

and

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Carnap (; ; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. He ...

was the first to coin the term in an analytic philosophical approach in his book ''Logical Foundations of Probability'', while the term is supplanted with

Gustave Lanson Gustave Lanson (5 August 1857 – 15 December 1934) was a French historian and literary critic. He taught at the Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. A dominant figure in French literary criticism, he influenced several gene ...

’s idea of ''Explication de Texte'' when referring to the analysis and criticism of different forms of literature.

Carnap's notion of explication

Summary

In analytic philosophy, the concept of explication was first developed by

. Explication can be regarded as a scientific process which transforms and replaces "an inexact prescientific concept" (which Carnap calls the explicandum), with a "new exact concept" (which he calls the explicatum). A description and

explanation An explanation is a set of Statement (logic), statements usually constructed to description, describe a set of facts which clarifies the causality, causes, wiktionary:context, context, and Logical consequence, consequences of those facts. It may ...

of the nature and impact of the new explicit knowledge is usually called an "explication". The new explicit knowledge draws on, and is an improvement upon, previous knowledge.

On explication and truth

An explication in the Carnapian sense is purely stipulative, and thus a subclass of normative definitions. Hence, an explication can not be true or false, just more or less suitable for its purpose. (Cf. Rorty's argument about the purpose and value of philosophy in Rorty (2003), "A pragmatist view of contemporary analytic philosophy", in Egginton, W. and Sandbothe, M. (Eds), The Pragmatic Turn in Philosophy, SUNY Press, New York, NY.) Examples of inexact daily life concepts in need of explication are our concepts of cause and of conditionals. Our daily life concept of cause does not distinguish between necessary causes, sufficient causes, complete causes etc. Each of these more precise concepts is an explication of our natural concept of cause. Natural language will only specify

truth conditions In semantics and pragmatics, a truth condition is the condition under which a sentence is true. For example, "It is snowing in Nebraska" is true precisely when it is snowing in Nebraska. Truth conditions of a sentence do not necessarily reflect cu ...

for propositions of the form "If p, then q" for situations where "p" is true. (Most of us probably don't have any clear intuitions regarding the truth conditions of the sentence "If I go out in the sun, I will get sunburned" in situations where I never go out in the sun.) An explication of the conditional will also specify truth conditions for situations where "p" is not true.

Reviews of Carnap's argument

Carnap's argument provides a helpful foundation in understanding and clarifying the nature and value of explication in defining and describing "new" knowledge. Others' reviews of Carnap's argument offer additional insights about the nature of explication. In particular, Bonolio's paper (2003) "Kant’s Explication and Carnap’s Explication: The Redde Rationem", and Maher's (2007) "Explication defended", add weight to the argument that explication is an appropriate methodology for formal philosophy.

Use of the word "explication"

The word "explicate" is a verb referring to the process of explicating. The word "explication" is a noun referring to the outcome of that process: the explicative work itself. As conceptual clarity is an important element of

, it is important to use words according to their proper definitions so as to avoid causing unnecessary confusion.

Semantic explication

In the

natural semantic metalanguage The natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) is a linguistic theory that reduces lexicons down to a set of semantic primitives. It is based on the conception of Polish professor Andrzej Bogusławski. The theory was formally developed by Anna Wierzbick ...

theory, explications are semantic representations of vocabulary. These explications are made up of a very limited set of words called

semantic primes Semantic primes or semantic primitives are a set of semantic concepts that are argued to be innately understood by all people but impossible to express in simpler terms. They represent words or phrases that are learned through practice but cannot ...

which are considered to have universal meaning across all languages. An example of an explication of the word ''happy'''':'' X feels happy = sometimes someone thinks something like this: something good happened to something I wanted this I don't want other things now because of this, someone feels something good X feels like this What sets the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Theory's explications apart from previous theories, is that these explications can fit into natural language, even if it sounds very awkward. For example: The clown looks appy The clown looks like he clown thinks something like this: 'something good happened to me; I wanted this; I don't want other things now'; because of this, the clown feels something good Explications in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage are neither exact dictionary definitions, nor encyclopedic explanations of a concept. They often differ slightly depending upon the personal experiences of the person writing them. In this way, they can be said to "rely heavily on 'folk theories,' that is, the rather naive understandings that most of us have about how life, the universe, and everything work." Explications of abstract concepts, such as color, do not list any scientific facts about the object or concrete definitions. Instead, the explications use comparisons and examples from the real world.

Explication, ''explication de texte'', and literary criticism

The terms ''explication'' and '' explication de texte'' have different meanings. As argued by Carnap (1950), in science and philosophy, "explication consists in transforming a given more or less inexact concept into an exact one or, rather, in replacing the first by the second. We call the given concept (or the term used for it) the explicandum, and the exact concept proposed to take the place of the first (or the term proposed for it) the explicatum. The explicandum may belong to everyday language or to a previous stage in the development of scientific language. The explicatum must be given by explicit rules for its use, for example, by a definition which incorporates it into a well-constructed system of scientific either logicomathematical or empirical concepts." In this context, 'explication' is now regarded as "an appropriate methodology for formal philosophy". (Maher, 2007). By contrast, in

, the term 'explication' is used as a proxy for the term '' explication de texte'' (proposed by

), where additional understandings and meanings are derived from the "

close reading In literary criticism, close reading is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A close reading emphasizes the single and the particular over the general, effected by close attention to individual words, the syntax, ...

" of (say) a poem, novel or play. In this process, explication often involves a line-by-line or episode-by-episode commentary on what is going on in a text. While initially this might seem reasonably innocuous, '' explication de texte'', and explication per se, is an interpretative process where the resulting new knowledge, new insights or new meanings, are open to subsequent debate and disaffirmation by others.

Notes

References

*Bonolio, G. (2003). "Kant’s Explication and Carnap’s Explication: The Redde Rationem", ''

International Philosophical Quarterly The ''International Philosophical Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal edited by a group of academics at Fordham University Fordham University () is a private Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and n ...

'' Vol. 43, No. 3, Issue 171, pp. 289–298. *Carnap, R. (1950). ''Logical foundations of probability'', University of Chicago Press, Illinois. *Harrison, S. E. (2006). "Explication without words: A composer's view", ''Organisations and People'', August, Vol.13 (3), pp. 59–63.
Introducing explication. Online since April 2013
*Maher, P. (2007
"Explication defended"
''

Studia Logica ''Studia Logica'' (full name: Studia Logica, An International Journal for Symbolic Logic), is a scienific journal publishing papers employing formal tools from Mathematics and Logic. The scope of papers published in Studia Logica covers all scient ...

'', Volume 86, Number 2, July 2007, pp. 331–341.

External links

Explication
article in the ''

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia, dealing with philosophy, philosophical topics, and philosophers. The IEP combines open access publication with peer reviewed publication of original pape ...

''
The Close Reading of Poetry: A Practical Introduction and Guide to Explication
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130406071127/http://web.uvic.ca/~englblog/closereading/ , date=2013-04-06 Analytic philosophy Literary criticism Semantics Semiotics