Good Explanation

A good explanation is a hard to vary assertion about reality, because every detail, ideally, plays a functional role, and if the explanation is refuted, its defenders would have nowhere to go.

We form good explanations by committing to claims that are easy to refute. We spell out how the claims could fail and what evidence would count against it. That specificity prevents us from keeping the explanation alive by adding convenient exceptions that undermine what it originally promised. We prefer these explanations because their survival may reveal how the world works.

See also: The Most Powerful Ideas For Progress