Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Khadijeh Hassan Beakzadeh ¹
• Seyed Hassan Hosseini ²

¹ Ph.D Student in Philosophy of Science and Technology, Sharif University of Technology,

² Faculty Member of Sharif University of Technology

Abstract

Salmon claims that explanation is an objective affair, and is nothing more than descriptive knowledge of the world. A criterion which Salmon provides for causal explanation as scientific explanation has two foundations: 1. Statistical Relevance; 2. Causal relation. In this paper, first, we will argue that the explanation includes both objective and subjective components and scientists use inference to the best explanation. Second, we will state that causation is an intellectual and philosophical affair so that necessity of causal relation is its result. Therefore there is no ontological status for the probabilistic approach of causality.

Keywords

• Scientific explanation
• causal explanation
• Wesley salmon
• causal mechanisms model
• metaphysical concept