Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. A Philosopher Looks at Science
  • Cited by 8
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2022
Print publication year:
2022
Online ISBN:
9781009201896
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009201896
Subjects:
Economics, Economics: General Interest, Philosophy: General Interest, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy
Series:
A Philosopher Looks At
Information

Book description

What is science and what can it do? Nancy Cartwright here takes issue with three common images of science: that it amounts to the combination of theory and experiment; that all science is basically reducible to physics; and that science and the natural world which it pictures are deterministic. The author's innovative and thoughtful book draws on examples from the physical, life, and social sciences alike, and focuses on all the products of science – not just experiments or theories – and how they work together. She reveals just what it is that makes science ultimately reliable, and how this reliability is nevertheless still compatible with a view of nature as more responsive to human change than we might think. Her book is a call for greater intellectual humility by and within scientific institutions. It will have strong appeal to anyone who thinks about science and how it is practised in society.

Reviews

‘When the philosopher Nancy Cartwright looks at science … she challenges the image of scientists who simply produce bold theories and put these to experimental tests. She sees a rich and complex network of activities and methods; together they help us to develop the concepts in which our theories are formulated, build models and forge narratives with which to understand the world, and create the phenomena required to put these theories to work and to the test.’

Source: Times Literary Supplement

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents
References

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.