DESCRIPTION, in the strict sense, means an account of the perceptible qualities or characteristics of objects or events. In this sense it is commonly contrasted with explanation (q.v.), which usually seeks to account for what is perceptible by means of factors and processes which are not open to observation. Ex treme empiricists maintain that science should confine itself to bare description and keep clear of any attempt at explanation. It is very easy, however, to smuggle what is really explanation into a so-called description. In the popular use of the term it is clear that a complete description of any object or event would include its explanation.
See A. Wolf, Essentials of Scientific Method (1928).