A deflationary Explanation explains something by showing that it is in fact something else that we have already explained, at least in principle. It thus has the form “X is really just Y”, for example “Causation is really just local constraints”.
Inserting an object from our everyday experiences for “X”, we can use deflationary explanations to debunk our Folk Ontology.
Deflationary explanations are desirable because
- We want to Use a parsimonious and productive ontology;
- they are stronger and less “greedy” than top-down Reductionism;
- similar to therapeutic approaches to philosophy, they provide us with the feeling of a problem dissolving, but at the same time have real explanatory grip.