explicans

English

Etymology

From Latin explicāns.

Noun

explicans (plural explicantia)

1. The underlying meaning of an explicandum.
   • 1963, Robert Brown, Explanation in Social Science (The International Library of Sociology & Social Reconstruction), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, published 1968, →ISBN, page 122:

     Thus when a function statement gives the explicandum, e.g. alcohol consumption, privileged joking, witchcraft inheritance, as a sufficient condition of the explicans (anxiety reduction, friendly relations, agnatic confidence), a law statement can easily be framed on this basis.

   • 1968, Richard Bevan Braithwaite, Scientific Explanation: A Study of the Function of Theory, Probability and Law in Science, Cambridge: At the University Press, page 321:

     The explicans in such an explanation is an event the occurrence of which possessing a certain property, in conjunction with other events with suitable properties, nomically determines the occurrence of the explicandum-event with a certain property.

   • 1992, John O’Shaughnessy, “Explanation”, in Explaining Buyer Behavior: Central Concepts and Philosophy of Science Issues, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 14:

     The single pattern that came to have wide acceptance was that the explicandum must follow as a logical consequence of the explicans.

Latin

Etymology

Present active participle of explicō (“unfold”).

Participle

explicāns (genitive explicantis, adverb explicanter); third-declension one-termination participle

1. unfolding, unfurling, uncoiling, loosening
2. deploying, extending, displaying
3. disentangling, arranging, regulating, settling, adjusting
4. developing, setting forth, exhibiting

Declension

Third-declension participle.

	singular			plural
	masc./fem.	neuter		masc./fem.	neuter
nominative	explicāns			explicantēs	explicantia
genitive	explicantis			explicantium
dative	explicantī			explicantibus
accusative	explicantem	explicāns		explicantēs explicantīs	explicantia
ablative	explicante explicantī1			explicantibus
vocative	explicāns			explicantēs	explicantia

¹When used purely as an adjective.