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Born in Pennsylvania 1944, Nancy Cartwright is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Durham and at the University of California. She earned her PH.D. in philosophy at the University of Illinois. Her research interests include philosophy and methodology of social science. Her current focus is on objectivity and evidence, especially evidence-based policy.
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Before she switched her career to focus on philosophy of methodology, Cartwright began her work in philosophy of quantum mechanics in the early 1970s, at the time when the field was dominated by men. She thrived in the field and opened the door for women, and made it easier for future generations to follow her steps.
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Cartwright argues in this book, that the laws in science do not describe nature or reality accurately. She claims that science extracts away reality to get to its laws, and so doing, loses its truthfulness.
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Cartwright married Sir Stuart Hampshire, a fellow philosopher and colleague at the time. Hampshire helped change the nature of moral philosophy and philosophy of mind in the 1950s and 1960s. He was known as one of the anti-rationalist Oxford thinkers.
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In this book, Cartwright argues against a vision of a world completely ordered by one single elegant theory. Rather, nature is messy and unpredictable. Not that the laws of physics are wrong, but there is a discrepancy between the laws and reality.
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In this book she argues that causation is not one thing, but many things. Different characterizing features and different methods for discovery can be put in a huge variety of causal relations.
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Cartwright was awarded the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for her achievement and contribution to philosophy. It was awarded by the Phi Beta Kappa Society in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association.
