Etymology: No, it isn’t French for “explanation.” Instead, the word “explication” refers to a cognitive method used by analytical philosophers and scientists. It was most famously defined by German-born American philosopher Rudolf Carnap in 1950 as a way to transform “an inexact prescientific concept, the explicandum, into a new exact concept, the explicatum.” In that sense, explicating goes beyond explaining. An explication has the power to change the way we understand the world by replacing a lack of data—or vague, This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Five Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 51 WORD: CRINGE A foray into the awkward. Arts & Culture Issue 50 Word: Dupe On the next best thing. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Word: Zeitgeber A new treatise on time. Arts & Culture Issue 48 Word: Kaloprosopia A word that celebrates the masks we wear. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Word: Döstädning A Swedish solution to the mess of death. Arts & Culture Issue 46 Word: Wintering When to withdraw from the world.
