salmon memorial lecture

Wesley C. Salmon joined the Department of Philosophy as Professor and Chair in 1981. He held the rank of University Professor from 1983 until his retirement in 1999. He exerted a profound influence over philosophy of science as it was practiced in Pittsburgh and internationally.  His investigations into scientific explanation, causality, probability and induction and the philosophy of space and time provide a model of insight and clarity, in both thought and word. He set an example personally through his unfailing integrity and kindness. He died in 2001. His memory survives through the scholars who study his work and the many who remember him personally, with respect and admiration.

 The Wesley C. Salmon Memorial Lecture Fund has been established to support an annual lecture by a prominent scholar in philosophy of science in honor of Wesley Salmon. In content and style of analysis, the lecture will be given in the tradition of the work of Wesley Salmon and its natural continuations. The lecture may be devoted to Salmon’s work. However the range of material suitable for the lecture is construed broadly, reflecting Salmon’s devotion to excellence in philosophy of science, however it may arise.

The lecturers are selected after nomination from a committee of scholars familiar with the area in which Salmon worked. The nominating committee is presently chaired by Ken Gemes, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. The final selection is made by the Wesley C. Salmon Lecture Committee. It consists of: Director, Center for Philosophy of Science, Chair, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Chair, Department of Philosophy, and Merrilee H. Salmon, Professor Emerita.

lecture schedule

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