OBITUARY
Wesley C. Salmon,
Professor Emeritus of the
History and Philosophy of Science
On Sunday, April
22, 2001, Wesley C. Salmon, University Professor Emeritus of philosophy,
and professor emeritus of the history and philosophy of science at the
University, was killed instantly in an automobile accident. His wife,
Merrilee Salmon, Pitt professor emerita of the history and philosophy
of science, and of anthropology, was in the vehicle with him but survived
uninjured. An eminent, internationally renowned philosopher of science,
Wesley Salmon was a much beloved colleague, teacher and friend whose premature
death is a grievous loss to the local, national and international academic
community.
Born in 1925,
he earned his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles,
in 1950 under Hans Reichenbach, one of the towering figures of 20th-century
philosophy of science, whose collection is part of the Archives of Scientific
Philosophy at the University's Hillman Library. He held appointments at
several universities before serving as Norwood Russell Hanson Professor
in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University
(Bloomington) from 1963 to 1973. He was at the University of Arizona (Tucson)
from 1973 to 1981.
Salmon joined
the Pitt faculty in 1981 as professor and chairman of philosophy, professor
of history and philosophy of science, as well as resident fellow in the
Center for Philosophy of Science. From 1983 until his retirement in 1999,
he held the rank of University Professor of Philosophy, filling the post
in which Carl G. Hempel, a major figure in 20th-century philosophy of
science, had preceded him.
His visiting professorships
include appointments at the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science
at the University of Minnesota (1963 and fall 1985), the University of
Pittsburgh (1968-1969), the University of Melbourne, Australia (1978),
and at the University of Konstanz, Germany (1995-1996). His last visiting
appointment was in 2000 at Kyoto University in Japan, where Merrilee Salmon
had a like appointment. After giving a series of four lectures in 1988
on "Four Decades of Scientific Explanation" at the University of Bologna
in Italy, on the occasion of its 900th anniversary, Salmon acquired mastery
of Italian by taking courses at Pitt, and subsequently gave professional
lectures in that language at several universities in Italy. To honor the
work of both Merrilee and Wesley Salmon, the Florentine Center for History
and Philosophy of Science hosted a workshop on "Experience, Reality, and
Scientific Explanation" in May 1996.
Wesley Salmon's
books and articles have ranged broadly over the theory of scientific explanation,
causality, probability, scientific confirmation and induction, and the
philosophy of physical science. After Hempel's pioneering models of scientific
explanation, which featured the expectability of phenomena, Salmon developed
influential rival models abjuring expectability in favor of providing
causally relevant factors. His well-known books include "The Foundations
of Scientific Inference" (1967), "Scientific Explanation and the Causal
Structure of the World" (1984), "Four Decades of Scientific Explanation"
(1990), and "Causality and Explanation" (1998), a collection of essays
spanning several decades. He was also the editor or co-editor of five
volumes.
Recently, he was
working on a pedagogical book (with Pitt faculty member Dennis Looney)
on Italian science from Dante to Fermi, based on a unique interdisciplinary
Pitt honors course that they had co-taught. He also was well along toward
completing another collection of his essays, entitled "Reality and Rationality."
Salmon's career
was distinguished by the high professional offices he held, the fellowships
in learned societies to which he was elected, and by= an array of other
academic recognitions. They include the presidencies of= the American
Philosophical Association (Pacific Division, 1977-78), the Philosophy
of Science Association (1971-72), the International Union of History and
Philosophy of Science (1998-1999), and its Division of Logic, Methodology
and Philosophy of Science (1996-99). He was a fellow of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science.
Salmon's contributions
were recognized by two Festschrift books in his honor: the inaugural volume
of the series "Australasian Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science,"
entitled "What? Where? When? Why?, Essays on Induction, Space and Time,
Explanation" (1982, edited by Robert McLaughlin), followed by "Probability
and Causality: Essays in Honor of Wesley Salmon" (1988, edited by James
Fetzer).
Besides earning
a Humboldt Foundation Award for 1995-1996, he had received a Ford Foundation
Faculty Fellowship (1953-54), a Creative Teaching Award from the University
of Arizona (1977), and a University of Pittsburgh President's Distinguished
Research Award (1990), in addition to a number of Research Grants from
the National Science Foundation. His service to the profession was marked
by membership of national and international committees, and of the editorial
boards of a number of journals. Furthermore, he served on several major
committees at Pitt. Besides his wife Merrilee Salmon, he is survived by
a daughter, Victoria (Tori) Gardner of Bloomington, Indiana; a stepdaughter,
Charlotte Broome of Pittsburgh; a stepson, Bruce Ashby of Reston, Virginia,
and five grandchildren.
Burial was private,
and the family requests that no flowers be sent. A memorial fund for graduate
education in the philosophy of science is being established in Salmon's
memory. Contributions should be made payable to the University of Pittsburgh,
specifying the Wesley C. Salmon Memorial Fund, and sent to 1017 Cathedral
of Learning. A memorial service will be announced at a later date.
Adolf Grabaum
Andrew Mellon Professor of Philosophy of Science
University of Pittsburgh
(posted 5/10/01)
10 May 2001 | Contact
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