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Wesley Salmon was an astute mind, and enjoyed a traditional style of learning as he grew up in the United States. He took a major turn, however, from what he thought his calling was in 1944 when he, "entered the University of Chicago Divinity School with the intention to become a minister" (Galavotti). He fell away from this goal, as he turned towards philosophy and scientific thought. In 1947, he received his MA in Philosophy, which was his first step into a larger world (Galavotti).
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On May 25, 1962, Salmon wrote a riveting book called the "Scientific Explanation" with Philip Kitcher. In it, Salmon explores what he believes is a new construct for "the scientific explanation" that explains the "that and the why" (Salmon, 4). Salmon's views were challenged quite a bit, and left a lot of other questions. But he did move thought on the subject forward. There's a YouTube video that captures his view (fast forward to 23:45) found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmKtyn5NzG8
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In his expedition to expand his horizons, Salmon looked to the stars. He published an introductory book called "Space, Time, and Motion" in 1975, which was considered an easy-to-read work for folks just entering the field (Galavotti). It had its critics, however, who were all-too-willing to take it apart over small things like failing to, "convey any sense of continuing philosophical debate" (Smith, 371). Salmon did a good job though of providing the fundamentals to his reader on the topic.
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Salmon's passion towards the end of his life was the philosophy of realism. He wrote many papers on it, and later these collections were published in a book after his death (Galavotti). In it, Salmon asks a defining question: "whether inductive reasoning contains the resources to enable us to have observational evidence for or against statements about unobservable entities and/or properties" (Salmon, 3). Salmon was extremely good at asking questions, and Reality and Rationality posed many.