Renowned for his scholarly contributions to the philosophy of science, this volume brings together twenty-six of Salmon's essays on subjects related to causality and explanation, written over the period 1971-1995. Six of the essays have never been published before and many others have only appeared in obscure venues. It includes a section of introductory pieces, as well as more advanced and technical works.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Invariably stimulating and frequently brilliant, [the essays] develop a powerful realist conception of scientific explanation--in which probabilistic and causal relations play starring roles--as well as a distinctive "process-based" account of causality. Salmon's skillful elaboration of these and other, closely-related themes makes the volume essential reading for philosophers of science interested in explanation, causation, and their interrelationships."--Philosophy of Science
"A rich collection of interesting papers. Since it holds a number of introductory pieces along with advanced essays and review articles, the volume will be accessible to a broad audience and will work well in philosophy of science courses. Useful to all those interested in the topic, from students to professionals, this overdue collection of papers by a major figure in the field will be an essential addition to the collections of all philosophers of science."--Lawrence Sklar, University of Michigan
"...Salmon has been exploring the nature of scientific understanding for his long professional life, and in these wise, beautifully written essays he advances the explanation of scientific explanation yet a little more....A very illuminating work, highly recommended."--Choice
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
About the Author
Wesley C. Salmon is at University of Pittsburgh.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
state of the art -- understanding an indeterministic world,
By R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Causality and Explanation (Paperback)
If you were forced to rely on only one book on the philosophy of science today (2002), this would be the one. A collection of 26 essays, CAUSALITY AND EXPLANATION represents the state of the art. Salmon dedicates the book to Carl G. Hempel, who developed the deductive-nomological, or covering law model of scientific explanation. Clearly, then, Salmon is no post-Kuhnian epistemological radical. There is progress beyond Hempel, but it is not in the social constructionist direction. Not for Salmon, anyway, and not for me either. Rather, it points in the direction of probabilistic, stochastic, explanation replacing the vestiges of Laplacian determinism. Many of the essays are quite dense, but the book contains a Key of sorts, in the form of three essays that are grouped as "Concise Overviews." Read these first and the rest makes much more sense. Salmon is an analytical philosopher, and analytical philosophy is a tradition that values clarity of expression.
This book is a marvelous accomplishment. It has proved quite useful in clarifying my thinking as I try to teach sociology undergraduates the scientific method, particularly on the distinction between deterministic and probabilistic causation. It is truly sad that it is not read by everyone who ever runs into Thomas Kuhn and the postmodern vector that he inspired.
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First Sentence:
The essays in Part 1 provide an elementary overview of the topics covered in this book, and they introduce the major concepts that will be found in the four remaining parts. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
genuine relevance relations, explanatory deductivism, causal betweenness, latent untreated syphilis, essential epistemic relativization, conjunctive fork, high probability requirement, distinction between causal processes, interactive fork, positive statistical relevance, statistical relevance relations, temporal anisotropy, thesis that explanations, continuous causal processes, relative annual rainfall, bilistic causality, inferential conception, conserved quantity theory, high inductive probability, indeterministic context, ontic conception, genuine causal processes, causal forks, perfect forks, ideal explanatory text Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Explanatory Asymmetry, Hans Reichenbach, John Jones, National Science Foundation, Philip Kitcher, Three Basic Conceptions, Patrick Suppes, Paul Humphreys, United States, Michael Scriven, Bertrand Russell, Ernest Nagel, Jane Bloggs, Karl Popper, Logic of Explanation, Grasshopper Pueblo, Larry Wright, Scientific American, Steven Weinberg, The Scientific Image, Adolf Grünbaum, Michael Friedman, Alberto Coffa, American Scientist, Max Born New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The essays in Part 1 provide an elementary overview of the topics covered in this book, and they introduce the major concepts that will be found in the four remaining parts. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
genuine relevance relations, explanatory deductivism, causal betweenness, latent untreated syphilis, essential epistemic relativization, conjunctive fork, high probability requirement, distinction between causal processes, interactive fork, positive statistical relevance, statistical relevance relations, temporal anisotropy, thesis that explanations, continuous causal processes, relative annual rainfall, bilistic causality, inferential conception, conserved quantity theory, high inductive probability, indeterministic context, ontic conception, genuine causal processes, causal forks, perfect forks, ideal explanatory text Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Explanatory Asymmetry, Hans Reichenbach, John Jones, National Science Foundation, Philip Kitcher, Three Basic Conceptions, Patrick Suppes, Paul Humphreys, United States, Michael Scriven, Bertrand Russell, Ernest Nagel, Jane Bloggs, Karl Popper, Logic of Explanation, Grasshopper Pueblo, Larry Wright, Scientific American, Steven Weinberg, The Scientific Image, Adolf Grünbaum, Michael Friedman, Alberto Coffa, American Scientist, Max Born New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 91
books:
See all 91 books this book cites
57
books
cite this book:
See all 57 books citing this book
- Scientific Explanation (Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science) by Philip Kitcher on 23 pages
- Aspects of Scientific Explanation: And Other Essays in the Philosophy of Science by Carl G. Hempel on 10 pages
- Probabilistic Causality (Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory) by Ellery Eells on 9 pages
- The Scientific Image (Clarendon Library of Logic & Philosophy) by Bas. C. van Fraassen on 7 pages
- Four Decades of Scientific Explanation by Wesley C. Salmon on 4 pages
See all 91 books this book cites
- Explanation: Theoretical Approaches and Applications (Synthese Library) by Giora Hon on 8 pages
- The Scientist as Philosopher: Philosophical Consequences of Great Scientific Discoveries by Friedel Weinert on 6 pages
- The Scientist as Philosopher: Philosophical Consequences of Great Scientific Discoveries by Friedel Weinert on 6 pages
- Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science by Christopher Hitchcock on page 195, and page 215
- Thinking about Physics (Princeton Paperbacks) by Roger G. Newton in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 57 books citing this book
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