Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-11T16:51:30.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Scientific Explanation: Three Basic Conceptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Wesley C Salmon
Wesley C Salmon*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When one takes a long look at the concept (or concepts) of scientific explanation, it is possible and plausible to distinguish three fundamental philosophical views. These might be called the epistemic, modal, and ontic. They can be discerned in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and they are conspicuous in the twentieth-century literature. In its classic form—the inferential version—the epistemic conception takes scientific explanations to be arguments. During the period of almost four decades since the publication of the landmark Hempel-Oppenheim article, “Studies in the Logic of Explanation” (1948), the chairman of this symposium (Carl G. Hempel) has done more than anyone else to articulate, elaborate, and defend this basic conception and the familiar models that give it substance (Hempel 1965), though it has, of course, had many other champions as well. According to the modal conception, scientific explanations do their jobs by showing that what did happen had to happen.

Type
Part VII. Scientific Explanation
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1984 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1984 , 1984 , pp. 293 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

The material in this paper is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. GS-42056 and Grant No. SOC-7809146. Any Opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

References

Achinstein, Peter (1983). The Nature of Explanation. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Aristotle, Analytica Posteriora. (As reprinted in The Works of Aristotle, Volume 1.) Edited by Ross, W.D. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928.Google Scholar
Bromberger, Sylvaln (1966). “Why-Questions.” In Mind and Cosmos. (University of Pittsburgh Series in the Philosophy of Science, Volume 3.) Edited by Robert G. Colodny. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Pages 86-111.Google Scholar
Dumond, Don E (1980). “The archaeology of Alaska and the peopling of America.” Science 209: 984-991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einstein, Albert; Podolsky, B.; and Rosen, N (1935). “Can Quantum- Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?” Physical Review 47: 777-780.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Good, I. J (1961-1962). “A Causal Calculus (I & II ).” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 11: 305-318; 12: 43-51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greeno, James G (1970). “Evaluation of Statistical Hypotheses Using Information Transmitted.” Philosophy of Science 37: 279-293. (As reprinted as “Explanation and Information.” In Salmon et al. (1971). Pages 89-104.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanna, Joseph (1978). “On Transmitted Information as a Measure of Explanatory Power.” Philosophy of Science 45: 531-562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harré, Ro and Madden, Edwar (1975). Causal Powers. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hempel, Carl G and Oppenheim, Paul (1948). “Studies in the Logic of Explanation.” Philosophy of Science 15: 135-175. (As reprinted in Hempel (1965). Pages 245-296.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hempel, Carl G (1965). Aspects of Scientific Explanation and Other Essays philosophy of Science. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Hempel, Carl G (1977). “Nachwort 1976: Neuere Ideen zu den Problemen der statistischen Erklarung.” In Carl G. Hempel, Aspekte wissenschaftlicher Erklarung. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. Pages 98-123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffrey, Richard (1969). “Statistical Explanation vs. Statistical Inference.” In Essays in Honor of Carl G. Hempel. Edited by Nicholas Rescher et al. Dordrecht: D. Reidel. (As reprinted in Salmon et al. (1971). Pages 19-28.)Google Scholar
Mackle, J.L (1974). The Cement of the Universe. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Mellor, D.H (1976). “Probable Explanation.” Australasia Journal of Philosophy 54: 231-241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichenbach, Hans (1956). The Direction of Time. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, Wesley C et al. (1971). Statistical Explanation, and Statistical Relevance. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, Wesley C (1984). Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sayre, Kenneth (1977). “Statistical Models of Causal Relations.” Philosophy of Science 44: 203-211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scriven, Michael (1975). “Causation as Explanation.” Nous 9: 3-16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stegmüller, Wolfgang (1973). Probleme und Resultate der Wissenaohaftstheorie und Analytischen Philosophie Band IV. Studienausgabe Teil E. Berlin/New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Stein, Howard (1983). “On the Present State of the Philosophy of Quantum Mathematics.” In PSA 1982 Volume 2 . Edited by Peter D. Asquith and Thomas Niokles. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 563-581.Google Scholar
Suppes, Patrick (1970). A Probabilistic Theory of Causality. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, Bas (1980). The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Wright, G.H (1971). Explanation and Understanding. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Larry (1976). Teleologioal Explanations. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar