explicans

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English

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Etymology

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From Latin explicāns.

Noun

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explicans

  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

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Etymology

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Present active participle of explicō (unfold).

Participle

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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

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Third-declension participle.

Number Singular Plural
Case / Gender 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.