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Wesley C Salmon (August 9, 1925 – April 22, 2001), was an American philosopher of science best-known for his work on the nature of scientific explanation.〔 His textbook on introductory logic was also long an international standard.〔 He also worked on confirmation theory, trying to expliciate how probability theory has been applied via inductive logic in attempts to confirm and choose hypotheses.〔〔Vincenzo Crupi, ("Confirmation" ), in Edward N Zalta, ed, ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Spring 2014 edn.〕 Most prominently, Salmon was a realist about causality in scientific explanation,〔William Bechtel, ''Discovering Cell Mechanisms: The Creation of Modern Cell Biology'' (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), (pp 24–25 ).〕 although his realist explanation of causality drew ample criticism.〔Phil Dowe, ("Causal Processes" ), in Edward N Zalta, ed, ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Fall 2008 edn, esp §§ 2 ("Objections to Russell's theory" ), 3 ("Salmon's mark transmission theory" ) & 4 ("Objections to Salmon's mark transmission theory" ).〕 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.〔Kenneth J Rothman & Sander Greenland, ("Causation and causal inference in epidemiology" ), ''American Journal of Public Health'', 2005;95(Suppl 1):S144-50.〕 Under the influence of logical positivism, and especially the work of Carl Hempel on the "covering law" model of scientific explanation,〔Deductive-nomological model〕 many philosophers view scientific explanation as involving no commitments about the role of causation.〔 Salmon introduced the ''statistical-relevance model'' (SR model), aimed to replace the covering law model's ''inductive-statistical model'' (IS model),〔 and proposed ''strict maximal specificity'' as a criterion supplementing the covering law model's other component, the ''deductive-nomological model'' (DN model).〔 Yet ultimately, Salmon found statistical models to be but early stages, and lawlike regularities to be unsatisfactory, in scientific explanation.〔 As the more actual manner of scientific explanation, Salmon proposed ''causal/mechanical explanation''.〔〔James Woodward, "Book review: Wesley Salmon, ''Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World''", ''Noûs'', 1988 Jun;22(2):322–24, (p 322 ).〕 ==Education and career== Salmon attended Wayne State University, then received a master's degree in 1947 from the University of Chicago.〔Lance Lugar, § "Biography", (Collection # ASP.2003.01: "Wesley C. Salmon Papers" ), Special Collections Department, University Library System, University of Pittsburgh, 1951–2001 (collection dates), Jun 2011 (date published), Website access March 12, 2014.〕 At UCLA, under Hans Reichenbach, Salmon earned a PhD in philosophy in 1950.〔〔 He was on Brown University's faculty from 1955 until 1963,〔Paul Lewis, ("Wesley C. Salmon, 75, theorist in realm of improbable events" ), ''New York Times'', May 4, 2001.〕 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.〔 Salmon authored over 100 papers.〔 For decades, his introductory textbook ''Logic'' was a standard, widely used, that went through multiple editions and was translated into several languages, including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.〔 Salmon was president of the Philosophy of Science Association from 1971 to 1972, and president of the American Philosophical Association's Pacific Division from 1977 to 1978.〔 In 1988, at the University of Bologna, for its 900th anniversary, he gave a four-lecture series, "Four decades of scientific explanation", whereupon, taking Italian courses at University of Pittsburgh, Salmon mastered Italian and gave lectures at several other universities in Italy.〔Adolf Grünbaum, ("Memorial minutes: Wesley C. Salmon, 1925-2001" ), ''Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association'', 2001 Nov;75(2):125–27.〕 From 1998 to 1999, he was president of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, sponsored by UNESCO.〔 Salmon was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.〔 In 2001, traveling with his wife Merilee, also a philosopher of science, Wesley Salmon died suddenly in a car crash.〔http://www.utimes.pitt.edu/?p=1775〕〔James H Fetzer, ("In memoriam: Wesley C Salmon (1925–2001)" ), ''Synthese'', 2002 Jul;132(1–2):1–3.〕 though she was uninjured.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wesley C. Salmon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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