ABSTRACT
Carl Gustav Hempel proposed the logic of scientific explanation with Paul Oppenheim in 1948. Forty years later, W. Salmon reviewed the academic development of scientific explanation from 1948 to 1989 in his book Four Decades of Scientific Explanation. B. Van Fraassen argues against the idea that scientific explanation, truth, and acceptance of a theory are equivalent. After clarifying the pragmatics of scientific explanation, Van Fraassen writes from a pragmatic viewpoint: "Explanation is indeed a virtue; but, less a virtue than an anthropocentric pleasure". Scientific explanation is neither the overriding virtue nor the end of scientific inquiry. M. Friedman proposes that scientific explanation is a global, rather than local, understanding provided by science, which is represented in the simplification and unification of our world image. A successful scientific explanation is usually an appropriately successful description with information, and the truth and acceptance of a scientific theory are irrelevant. The understanding of scientific explanation involves the nature of scientific laws.
