Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World

Wesley C. Salmon

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780691101705, 9780691072937
• eBook ISBN: 9780691221489
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies

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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Scientific Explanation: Three General Conceptions
• 2. Statistical Explanation and Its Models
• 3. Objective Homogeneity
• 4. The Three Conceptions Revisited
• 5. Causal Connections
• 6. Causal Forks and Common Causes
• 7. Probabilistic Causality
• 8. Theoretical Explanation
• 9. The Mechanical Philosophy
• Bibliography
• Index