Hans Reichenbach: Logical Empiricist

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springer.com Philosophy : Philosophy of Science Salmon, M.H. (Ed.) Hans Reichenbach: Logical Empiricist Logical empiricism - not to be confused with logical positivism (see pp. 40-44) - is a movement which has left an indelible mark on twentieth• century philosophy; Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953) was one of its found• ers and one of its most productive advocates. His sudden and untimely death in 1953 halted his work when he was at the height of his intellectual powers; nevertheless, he bequeathed to us a handsome philosophical inheritance. At the present time, twenty-five years later, we can survey our heritage and see to what extent we have been enriched. The present collection of essays constitutes an effort to do just that - to exhibit the scope and unity of Reichenbach's philosophy, and its relevance to current philosophical issues. There is no Nobel Prize in philosophy - the closest analogue is a volume in The Library of Living Philosophers, an honor which, like the Nobel Prize, cannot be awarded posthumously. Among 'scientific philosophers,' Rudolf Carnap, Albert Einstein, Karl Popper, and Springer Bertrand Russell have been so honored. Had Reichenbach lived longer, he would have shared the honor with Carnap, for at the time of his death a volume on Logical Empiricism, treating 1979, XI, 793 p. 1st the works of Carnap and Reichenbach, was in its early stages of preparation. In the volume edition which emerged, Carnap wrote, "In 1953, when Reichenbach's creative activity was suddenly ended by his premature death, our movement lost one of its most active leaders. Printed book Order online at springer.com/booksellers Hardcover Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH Customer Service Printed book Tiergartenstrasse 15-17 Hardcover 69121 Heidelberg ISBN 978-90-277-0958-5 Germany £ 109,99 | CHF 153,50 | 129,99 € | T: +49 (0)6221 345-4301 142,99 € (A) | 139,09 € (D) [email protected] Available Discount group Science (SC) Product category Contributed volume Series Synthese Library Other renditions Softcover ISBN 978-94-009-9406-5 Softcover ISBN 978-94-009-9405-8 Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. Americas: Tax will be added where applicable. Canadian residents please add PST, QST or GST. Please add $5.00 for shipping one book and $ 1.00 for each additional book. Outside the US and Canada add $ 10.00 for first book, $5.00 for each additional book. If an order cannot be fulfilled within 90 days, payment will be refunded upon request. Prices are payable in US currency or its equivalent. ISBN 978-90-277-0958-5 / BIC: PDA / SPRINGER NATURE: SCE34000 Part of .

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CAUSATION Chapter 4 Humean Reductionism – Analyses in Terms of Nomological Conditions Many different accounts of causation, of a Humean reductionist sort, have been advanced, but four types are especially important. Of these, three involve analytical reductionism. First, there are approaches which start out from the general notion of a law of nature, then define the ideas of necessary, and sufficient, nomological conditions, and, finally, employ the latter concepts to explain what it is for one state of affairs to cause another. Secondly, there are approaches that employ subjunctive conditionals, either in an attempt to give a purely counterfactual analysis of causation (David Lewis, 1973 and 1979), or as a supplement to other notions, such as that of agency (Georg von Wright, 1971). Thirdly, there are approaches that employ the idea of probability, either to formulate a purely probabilistic analysis (Hans Reichenbach, 1956; I. J. Good, 1961 and 1962; Patrick Suppes, 1970; Ellery Eells, 1991; D. H. Mellor, 1995) - where the central idea is that a cause must, in some way, make its effect more likely -- or as a supplement to other ideas, such as that of a continuous process (Wesley Salmon, 1984). Finally, a fourth approach involves the idea of offering, not an analytic reduction of causation, but a contingent identification of causation, as it is in this world, with a relation whose only constituents are non- causal properties and relations. One idea, for example, is that causal processes can be identified with continuous processes in which relevant quantities are conserved (Wesley Salmon, 1997 and 1998; Phil Dowe, 2000a and 2000b).
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