Wesley Salmon

Wesley C Salmon (August 9, 1925 – April 22, 2001) was an American philosopher of science renowned for his work on the nature of scientific explanation. He also worked on confirmation theory, trying to explicate how probability theory via inductive logic might help confirm and choose hypotheses. Yet most prominently, Salmon was a realist about causality in scientific explanation, although his realist explanation of causality drew ample criticism. Still, his books on scientific explanation itself were landmarks of the 20th century's philosophy of science, and solidified recognition of causality's important roles in scientific explanation, whereas causality itself has evaded satisfactory elucidation by anyone.

Under logical empiricism's influence, especially Carl Hempel's work on the "covering law" model of scientific explanation, most philosophers had viewed scientific explanation as stating regularities, but not identifying causes. To replace the covering law model's inductive-statistical model (IS model), Salmon introduced the statistical-relevance model (SR model), and proposed the criterion strict maximal specificity to supplement the covering law model's other component, the deductive-nomological model (DN model). Yet ultimately, Salmon held statistical models to be but early stages, and lawlike regularities to be insufficient, in scientific explanation. Salmon proposed that scientific explanation's manner is actually causal/mechanical explanation.

Salmon attended Wayne State University, then received a master's degree in 1947 from the University of Chicago. At UCLA, under Hans Reichenbach, Salmon earned a PhD in philosophy in 1950. He was on Brown University's faculty from 1955 until 1963, when he joined the History and Philosophy of Science Department of Indiana University Bloomington and there was Norwood Russell Hanson Professor until 1973 when he and wife Merilee moved to Arizona. Salmon left the University of Arizona to join the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Philosophy, among the most prestigious, in 1981, where he was professor and chairperson until 1983 upon succeeding Carl Hempel as University Professor. Salmon retired in 1999.

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