Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780691101705)

The philosophical theory of scientific explanation proposed here involves a radically new treatment of causality that accords with the pervasively statistical character of contemporary science. Wesley C. Salmon describes three fundamental conceptions of scientific explanation--the epistemic, modal, and ontic. He argues that the prevailing view (a version of the epistemic conception) is untenable and that the modal conception is scientifically out-dated. Significantly revising aspects of his earlier work, he defends a causal/mechanical theory that is a version of the ontic conception.

Professor Salmon's theory furnishes a robust argument for scientific realism akin to the argument that convinced twentieth-century physical scientists of the existence of atoms and molecules. To do justice to such notions as irreducibly statistical laws and statistical explanation, he offers a novel account of physical randomness. The transition from the "reviewed view" of scientific explanation (that explanations are arguments) to the causal/mechanical model requires fundamental rethinking of basic explanatory concepts.

Author: Wesley C. Salmon
ISBN-10: 0691101701
ISBN-13: 9780691101705
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/21/1984
Pages: 321
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.03lbs
Size: 9.18h x 6.15w x 0.78d