Historians, scientists, mathematicians all explain things. Or, they say they have explained something. Explain means to make a statement plain and comprehensible, or a set of statements to describe a set of facts which clarifies the causes. As an example, a mathematician explains the steps that he uses to solve a problem. In a way, they are, but that is only in their minds. The people that the historian, scientist, and mathematician are explaining to might not understand it, so it is not really explaining. I do not think that they can ever really explain, for the reason that everyone will not be able to understand any of the words that are coming out of their mouths. I do not think that it is explaining if only some people out of billions will be able to comprehend it. All of these "experts" explain differently too. Math uses a lot of examples to explain their cause, historians use lectures and the past for theirs, and science uses data. But that does not help to explain anything. So can anyone really explain anything? They think they can. And they actually are. But the historian, the scientist, and the mathematician are only really explaining to a few people. This can be because someone is not very good at explaining, or the person you are trying to explain something to just do not get it.
Lets break down the definition of explain. Make a statement clear and comprehensible. Can anyone really do that? The mathematician needs to explain how he solves one of the problems that are laid out in front of him. He explains it the best that he, or she, could. Probably how it makes sense to him. But what makes sense to him might not make sense to you, or the person next to him, or the person next to that, and so on an so on. Why he is saying what is happening it seems clear. Not to you. You see a big jumbled mess still. It is not comprehensible. The scientist and his data can mean nothing to some. In both situations it would can b difficult to fully explain how the final result was come upon.
A set of statements that describe a set of facts is also a definition for explain. Those statements have to be understandable too or all you get is an endless circle where you are explaining what you were just explaining.
This can also go in the opposite and you can explain something. By the definition, if the person, or people, you are talking to is at a full understanding of the concept you are explaining. When you reach that point then I think you have successfully explained something.
Are the mathematician, historian, and scientist all using ‘explain’ in the same way? They do not. A mathematician and a historian explain in a different way. A mathematician explains in a straight forward way. Like when that person is explaining how to solve a problem. This happens, than this happens, and so on and so on. But when you are talking to a historian it is completely different. They will explain something but it not straight facts. There can be many answers for one thing. Plus, they use their interpretations. It is hard to explain something when the other person is feeling something else and is interpreting the information in a different way. An example of what a historian can be explaining is the reasons for the Vietnam War. There are probably so many, and you can argue about if something is a cause or not. This means that, in a way, a historian cannot explain well. That is if they can even explain what they are trying to say at all. The historian does not have proof, in a way. The mathematician and scientists have that proof. The mathematician has the facts to help him or her explain, and the scientist has the data to help him or her explain. There is a huge difference between these. They are very different. If you talk to the historian and then talk to the mathematician, even the scientist, you will notice that they are completely different conversations. Again, I will say, that the historian would be more in perspective, so when he, or she, is explaining something, it would more of opinions and thoughts. This might be because of what we talked about before. Is history fact, or just interpretations of others? That is the opposite of the other subjects. That can be proved that this plus this equals this. Or, do this, and you will always get this answer. Again, it is straight forward.
A conclusion to all of this is simply put that the mathematician, the scientist, and the historian all ‘explain’ differently. They are not, in anyway, using the word explain in the same way. This is because they are all different. They are different subjects. They have different ways of giving out facts.
