From Grounding to Stabilisation: Adequacy as a Criterion for Scientific Explanation

TL;DR

This paper proposes a process-based account of scientific explanation based on stabilisation, offering a formal schema to assess explanation adequacy through invariance under transformations, unifying various scientific phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a formal stabilisation schema for explanations, replacing grounding with operational adequacy tests, and applies it to unify diverse scientific concepts and phenomena.

Findings

Stability under transformations defines explanation adequacy.

Theory change is an empirical question of structural continuity.

Quantum measurement and emergence are explained via invariance and stability.

Abstract

This paper develops a process-based account of scientific explanation that reconceives grounding in terms of stabilisation. Grounding theories capture hierarchical dependence but lack criteria for when explanations remain adequate under model updates, perturbations, and theory change. Stabilisation is formally defined by a schema \(C \to P(I)\), where explanatory relations are sufficient when they preserve specified relational invariants under admissible transformations. This replaces the search for ultimate foundations with operational adequacy tests indexed to measurable invariance, resolving infinite regress worries while preserving a modest scientific realism. Applications show unifying power: theory change becomes an empirical question about structural continuity; quantum measurement becomes apparatus-dependent pattern selection; the effectiveness of mathematics reflects convergence on transformation-invariant descriptions; and emergence versus reduction reduces to stability of cross-level mappings. The black hole event horizon illustrates how ontologically identical states can diverge in admissible evolution, revealing process as explanatorily fundamental. Companion work develops apparatus-dependent adequacy protocols, including pointer-basis rotation and coupling-spectra methods, turning the framework into a falsifiable research programme across quantum, thermodynamic, and relativistic domains.