Table Of ContentHANS REICHENBACH: LOGICAL EMPIRICIST
SYNTHESE LIBRARY
STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY,
LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Managing Editor:
JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Academy of Finland, Stanford University,
and Florida State University
Editors:
ROBERT S. COHEN, Boston University
DONALD DAVIDSON University of Chicago
GABRIEL NUCHELMANS, University of Leyden
WESLEY C. SALMON, University of Arizona
VOLUME 132
HANS REICHENBACH:
LOGICAL EMPIRICIST
Edited by
WESLEY C. SALMON
University of Arizona
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY
DORDRECHT : HOLLAND / BOSTON: U.S.A.
LONDON:ENGLAND
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Hans Reichenbach, logical empiricist.
(Synthese library; v. 132)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Reichenbach, Hans, 1891-1953-Addresses, essays, lectures.
I. Reichenbach, Hans 1891-1953. II. Salmon, Wesley C.
B945.R42H36 1979 191 79-11032
ISBN-I3: 978-94-009-9406-5 e-ISBN-I3: 978-94-009-9404-1
001: 10.1007/978-94-009-9404-1
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All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 1979 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
and copyright holders as specified on the appropriate pages within
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1979
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in. any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any informational storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
This volume is dedicated to
Maria Reichenbach
For her unflagging efforts
to make Hans Reichenbach's philosophy
available to people throughout the world
HANS REICHENBACH
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WESLEY C. SALMON / Preface ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
WESLEY C. SALMON / The Philosophy of Hans Reichenbach 1
F. JOHN CLENDINNEN / Inference, Practice and Theory 85
BAS C. VA N FRAASSEN / Relative Frequencies 129
BEN ROGERS / The Probabilities of Theories as Frequencies 169
JAMES H. FETZER / Reichenbach, Reference Classes, and Single
Case 'Probabilities' 187
CLARK GLYMOUR / Reichenbach's Entanglements 221
KEITH LEHRER / Reichenbach on Convention 239
ANDREAS KAMLAH-/ Hans Reichenbach's Relativity of
Geometry 251
J. ALBERTO COFFA / Elective Affinities: Weyl and Reichenbach 267
LAURENT A. BEAUREGARD / Reichenbach and Conventionalism 305
ADOLF GRUNBAUM and ALLEN I. JANIS /The Geometryofthe
Rotating Disk in the Special Theory of Relativity 321
o. COSTA DE BEAUREGARD / Two Lectures on the Direction of
Time 341
LA WRENCE SKLAR / What Might Be Right about the Causal
Theory of Time 367
PHILIP VON BRETZEL / Concerning a Probabilistic Theory of
Causation Adequate for the Causal Theory of Time 385
WESLEY C. SALMON / Why Ask, 'Why?'?-An Inquiry
Concerning Scientific Explanation 403
DONALD RICHARD NILSON / Hans Reichenbach on the Logic of
Quantum Mechanics 427
GARY M. HARDEGREE/Reichenbach and the Logic of Quantum
Mechanics 475
GAR Y M. HARDEGREE / Reichenbach and the Interpretation of
Quantum Mechanics 513
ROGER JONES / Causal Anomalies and the Completeness of
Quantum Theory 567
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEAL GROSSMAN / Metaphysical Implications of the Quantum
~~ ~
MERRILEE H. SALMON / Consistency Proofs for Applied
Mathematics 625
WILLIAM E. MCMAHON / A Generative Model for
Translating from Ordinary Language into Symbolic Notation 637
WESLEY C. SALMON / Laws, Modalities and Counterfactuals 655
EVAN K. JOBE / Reichenbach's Theory of Nomological Statements 697
CYNTHIA SCHUSTER / Appreciation and Criticism of
Reichenbach's Meta-ethics: Achilles' Heel of the System? 721
BIBLIOGRAPHY 731
INDEX OF NAMES 751
ANALYTICAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS 759
PREFACE
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 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 the works of Carnap and Reichenbach, was in its
early stages of preparation. In the volume 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. But
his published work and the fruit of his personal influence live on." We
can, perhaps, regard the present volume as a member of a hypothetical
series, The Library of Living Philosophies. Although there is no substitute
for the philosopher's intellectual autobiography, or for his own replies
to his critics and commentators, a collection of critical and expository
essays such as these can bear witness to the historical and contemporary
significance of his work.
The first essay in this collection attempts a fairly comprehensive survey
of the· full range of Reichenbach's philosophical work; the remaining
essays deal with various specific areas. Some are expository, some are
critical, some are historical, some show the immediate relevance of his
work to current discussions, some attempt to extend the treatment ofprob
lems to which Reichenbach had addressed himself - indeed, most of the
ix
x PREFACE
essays exhibit several of the foregoing approaches. Taken together, they
provide a convincing display of the range and continuing significance of
Reichenbach's monumental philosophical contributions.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
References to Reichenbach's principal philosophical works can be found
in the Comprehensive Bibliography at the end of this volume; a more
complete list of all of his published work up to 1959 appears in Reichen
bach (1959). A nine volume German edition of Hans Reichenbach's
Gesammelte Werke, under the joint editorship of Andreas Kamiah and
Maria Reichenbach, is being published by Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn (Wies
baden); the first two volumes have already appeared. My lead essay in
this book, 'The Philosophy of Hans Reichenbach,' is a slightly altered
version of my Introduction to the Vieweg edition, which, after translation
into German by Maria Reichenbach, appears in the first volume. A two
volume English edition, Hans Reichenbach: Selected Writings, 1909-1953,
edited by Robert S. Cohen and Maria Reichenbach, is published in the
Vienna Circle Collection by D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A. WESLEY C. SALMON
August, 1978
