Probability and Causality: Essays in Honor of Wesley C. Salmon (Synthese Library (Hardcover))

The contributions to this special collection concern issues and problems discussed in or related to the work of Wesley C. Salmon. Salmon has long been noted for his important work in the philosophy of science, which has included research on the interpretation of probability, the nature of explanation, the character of reasoning, the justification of induction, the structure of space/time and the paradoxes of Zeno, to mention only some of the most prominent. During a time of increasing preoccupation with historical and sociological approaches to under­ standing science (which characterize scientific developments as though they could be adequately analysed from the perspective of political movements, even mistaking the phenomena of conversion for the rational appraisal of scientific theories), Salmon has remained stead­ fastly devoted to isolating and justifying those normative standards distinguishing science from non-science - especially through the vindi­ cation of general principles of scientific procedure and the validation of specific examples of scientific theories - without which science itself cannot be (even remotely) adequately understood. In this respect, Salmon exemplifies and strengthens a splendid tradi­ tion whose most remarkable representatives include Hans Reichenbach, Rudolf Carnap and Carl G. Hempel, all of whom exerted a profound influence upon his own development. Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Dynamic Rationality: Propensity, Probability, and Credence....Pages 3-40 Front Matter....Pages 41-41 Hume’s Refutation of Inductive Probabilism....Pages 43-77 An Adamite Derivation of the Principles of the Calculus of Probability....Pages 79-89 Probability, Possibility, and Plenitude....Pages 91-108 Probabilistic Metaphysics....Pages 109-132 Probabilistic Theories of Causation....Pages 133-160 Conditional Chance....Pages 161-178 Front Matter....Pages 179-179 How to Tell a Common Cause: Generalizations of the Conjunctive Fork Criterion....Pages 181-188 Probabilistic Causal Interaction and Disjunctive Causal Factors....Pages 189-209 The Principle of the Common Cause....Pages 211-228 On Raising the Chances of Effects....Pages 229-239 How to Probabilize a Newcomb Problem....Pages 241-251 Non-Nietzschean Decision Making....Pages 253-268 Front Matter....Pages 269-269 Publications: An Annotated Bibliography....Pages 271-336 Back Matter....Pages 337-362