Answer:
There are many different types of explanations. Scientific explanations usually deal with the natural world, and they start by citing causes of natural phenomena or subsuming them under empirical laws in some way that is instructive. Mathematical explanations usually deal with quantity and abstract structure, and they usually begin by proving a theorem in some way that is instructive. The current entry focuses on a group of explanations that are widely thought to be metaphysical in nature in some way. Consider the following list of hypothetical examples, which should be familiar to any metaphysician:
1)
Socrates the philosopher, and this bust of him in our seminar room, are both snub nosed because they share the property being snub-nosed.
(2)
Socrates’s cloak has a color because it is green.
(3)
Socrates is the very individual he is at least in part because he has Sophroniscus as a father.
(4)
Socrates is just because his soul is well-ordered.
Step-by-step explanation: