Abstract The best explanations of the physical world are provided by experimental philosophy. This philosophy denies knowledge to make room for enquiry. That is, it rejects the extravagant claims made on behalf of human reason by the dogmatic philosophers, and therefore also of the knowledge of the essences of objects derived from rational insight into their natures, or delivered a priori by alleged innate principles in the mind. Without such knowledge, people must make do with experience and what can be gleamed from it. The explanations that best fit the experimental evidence are that the world works according to mechanical principles: most simply, that change occurs because objects in motion collide with other objects, and impart motion to them. Although the nature of the mind is not revealed by this philosophy, it is not the case that mechanical explanations cannot illuminate mental capacities and processes.
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