Causality and explanation / Wesley C. Salmon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Salmon, Wesley C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Science--Methodology.

Causality (Physics).

Explanation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 434 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998.

Summary:

Renowned for his scholarly contributions to the philosophy of science, Salmon has collected in this volume 26 of his essays on subjects related to causality and explanation, written between 1971-1995. Six of the essays are previously unpublished.

Contents:

pt. I. Introductory Essays: Causality, Determinism, and Explanation. 1. A New Look at Causality. 2. Determinism and Indeterminism in Modern Science. 3. Comets, Pollen, and Dreams: Some Reflections on Scientific Explanation. 4. Scientific Explanation: Causation and Unification. 5. The Importance of Scientific Understanding pt. II. Scientific Explanation. 6. A Third Dogma of Empiricism. 7. Causal and Theoretical Explanation. 8. Why Ask, "Why?"?: An Inquiry Concerning Scientific Explanation. 9. Deductivism Visited and Revisited. 10. Explanatory Asymmetry: A Letter to Professor Adolf Grunbaum from His Friend and Colleague. 11. Van Fraassen on Explanation / Wesley C. Salmon and Philip Kitcher pt. III. Causality. 12. An "At At" Theory of Causal Influence. 13. Causal Propensities: Statistical Causality versus Aleatory Causality. 14. Probabilistic Causality. 15. Intuitions Good and Not So Good. 16. Causality without Counterfactuals. 17. Indeterminacy, Indeterminism, and Quantum Mechanics pt. IV. Concise Overviews. 18. Causality: Production and Propagation. 19. Scientific Explanation: How We Got from There to Here. 20. Scientific Explanation: Three Basic Conceptions pt. V. Applications to Other Disciplines: Archaeology and Anthropology, Astrophysics and Cosmology, and Physics. 21. Alternative Models of Scientific Explanation / Wesley C. Salmon and Merrilee H. Salmon. 22. Causality in Archaeological Explanation. 23. Explanation in Archaeology: An Update. 24. The Formulation of Why Questions. 25. Quasars, Causality, and Geometry: A Scientific Controversy That Did Not Occur. 26. Dreams of a Famous Physicist: An Apology for Philosophy of Science.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Salmon, Wesley C. Causality and explanation.

ISBN:

0-19-802682-X

0-585-35762-5