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 ...

Negli ultimi anni i toni del dibattito pubblico sul ruolo della scienza nella società contemporanea si sono inaspriti e polarizzati. Basti pensare a due eventi di portata mondiale in cui il lavoro della comunità scientifica è stato ed è tuttora, nel bene e nel male, protagonista: la pandemia di Covid-19 e la crisi climatica. Il tema centrale, insomma, è l'immagine che la società ha della scienza e l'immagine che la scienza, attraverso le sue scoperte, i suoi risultati e le sue ambizioni, d...

This is a volume in the highly respected Carus Lectures Series. Previous volumes have sold well, for example: Dependent Rational Animals by MacIntyre has sold 6, 039 and The Abuse of Beauty by Danto has sold 3,615.

It is often supposed that the spectacular successes of our modern mathematical sciences support a lofty vision of a world completely ordered by one single elegant theory. In this book Nancy Cartwright argues to the contrary. When we draw our image of the world from the way modern science works - as empiricism teaches us we should - we end up with a world where some features are precisely ordered, others are given to rough regularity and still others behave in their own diverse ways. This p...

In this book, Nancy Cartwright, Eileen Munro and John Pemberton introduce a new method for assessing whether plans for how to affect change produced their intended outcome, or whether they are likely to do so in the future. The method offers the prospect of a step-change improvement in the accuracy of policy assessments, based on a new pluralistic theory of causation. This theory, which goes beyond existing ones, synthesises seven tried and tested familiar component accounts so as to licen...

Over the last twenty or so years, it has become standard to require policy makers to base their recommendations on evidence. That is now uncontroversial to the point of triviality--of course, policy should be based on the facts. But are the methods that policy makers rely on to gather and analyze evidence the right ones? In Evidence-Based Policy, Nancy Cartwright, an eminent scholar, and Jeremy Hardie, who has had a long and successful career in both business and the economy, expl...

Science is remarkably reliable. It puts people on the moon, performs laser eye surgery, tells us about ancient civilizations and species, and predicts the future of our climate. What underwrites this reliability? This book argues that the standard answers--the scientific method, rigour, and objectivity--are insufficient for the job. Here we propose a new model of science which places its products front and centre. In The Tangle of Science we show how any reliable piece of science ...

Nancy Cartwright is one of the most distinguished and influential contemporary philosophers of science. Despite the profound impact of her work, there is neither a systematic exposition of Cartwright’s philosophy of science nor a collection of articles that contains in-depth discussions of the major themes of her philosophy.This book is devoted to a critical assessment of Cartwright’s philosophy of science and contains contributions from Cartwright's champions and critics. Broken i...

La evaluación de impacto es un tipo de estudio que permite identificar si las políticas, los programas o proyectos causaron un efecto positivo sobre la población que los recibió. Si partimos de la premisa de que las políticas públicas son instrumentales —medios para alcanzar un fin—, la evaluación de impacto es, en muchos sentidos, su prueba de fuego. Por abocarse a la realización de inferencias causales, la evaluación de impacto se considera la joya de la corona de la investigación aplica...

In July 2003 the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, invited members to discover the many talents of a person who became an icon in animation and inspired an entire generation of voice actors: Daws Butler.Hosted by Butler prot├®g├® Joe Bevilacqua (a.k.a. Joe Bev), the event included special guests June Foray (Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Witch Hazel, and Granny), Corey Burton (Justice League, Captain Hook), and Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson, Rugrats

As heard on Sirius XM and NPR stations, this is six hours of audio theater from the mind of Daws Butler, the voice of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and many other cartoon characters. In 1975, Butler began an acting workshop that spawned such talents as Nancy Cartwright (The Simpsons), Corey Burton (Old Navy, Disney), and Joe Bevilacqua (NPR).In this series, host Joe Bevilacqua presents performances of scripts Butler wrote for his acting workshop.

Sunset Maloney is taking a stand in the middle of a ruthless land grab, finding big trouble in the Big Sky country of Montana. Slim Trotwood is a cruel, greedy tinhorn — a gambler with little money and less skill — and Sunset's the only man willing to take him on. Faster than greased lightning with his six-gun, nothing can stop him from taking Trotwood down... until he meets Tinhorn's Daughter. Sunset falls hard for her, but if he can't make her see the truth about her father, he ...