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Interpretation vs Explanation
Interpretation vs Explanation
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Belly
#454426 Tue, 18 Dec 07 08:31 AM
Are the two words the same?
Interpretation
and
Explanation
Belly
Joined on Mon, Feb 19 2007
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nona the brit
#454449 Tue, 18 Dec 07 11:06 AM
I would say that explanation relates to facts but interpretations relate to opinions.
nona the brit
Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004
England
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The name says it all.
Interpretation and explanation?
Proverbs Interpretation ???
Explanation: plausible
Hobbes begs explanation
Explanation: ...square meal...
Incidentally vs. by the way
Another vs other
Electrical vs electric vs electronic
Could you give more explanation of this phrase...
Interpretation of 'unburnt brick-red complexion...
Lunch vs. to have lunch
Liquid vs fluid
CalifJim
#454815 Wed, 19 Dec 07 04:25 AM
What's your interpretation of X?
asks you to say what you think X means.
What's you explanation of X?
asks you to tell me something that will help me understand X.
They are not the same.
CJ
CalifJim
Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004
California
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"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche
Scandza
#455266 Thu, 20 Dec 07 10:10 AM
Hi there, I hope my opinions to be useful:
An explanation is the logical (non-contradictory) arrangement of facts translated into a simpler language. An example of this is a scientific theory that has been tested and proved. Its general rule is to be simpler than the phenomenon itself (Remember Occam's Razor: "entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem", or "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity").
An interpretation is the act of fleshing out these facts by putting them into relatively fixed contexts. For instance, quantum mechanics hasn't yet reached a final explanation, nevertheless it has several interpretations (Copenhagen, Many-Worlds, Hidden Variable, etc) that sometimes contradict themselves despite having the same theoretical backgrounds. Interpretation has more to do with speculation and subjectivity though some explanations suffer from the same problem.
In my personal point of view, an interpretation tries to find a "goal" or "aim" to the given data while explanations are usually content in describing these data.
Scandza
Joined on Thu, Dec 20 2007
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