**Links to**: [[05 Prediction]], [[Logic]], [[Science]], [[Whence]], [[What]], [[Principle of Sufficient Reason]], [[Explanans]]. >“It may be said... that an explanation is not fully adequate unless its _explanans_, if taken account of in time, could have served as a basis for predicting the phenomenon under consideration.... It is this potential predictive force which gives scientific explanation its importance: Only to the extent that we are able to explain empirical facts can we attain the major objective of scientific research, namely not merely to record the phenomena of our experience, but to learn from them, by basing upon them theoretical generalizations which enable us to anticipate new occurrences and to control, at least to some extent, the changes in our environment.” — [[Carl Gustav Hempel]] & [[Paul Oppenheim]], 1948, ([[Studies in the Logic of Explanation]] p. 138).