Aspects of Scientific Explanation: And Other Essays in the Philosophy of Science

A classic statement of a logical empiricist (LE) account of explanation - LE being the dominant philosophy of science in the middle part of the 20th century, and still influential today in some of the "aspiring" sciences (such as experimental psychology and economics). It is clear and readable, and worth reading to see where later accounts of scientific explanation either draw their inspiration or are reacting (negatively) to.