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Publication of "How the Laws of Physics Lie"
In August 1983, Nancy Cartwright published her first book, in which she discussed how basic fundamental laws in science do not necessarily reflect reality but rather an ideal system under ideal conditions. However, she explains that laws derived about specific phenomena are more true to reality than the fundamental laws, and they can be used to collectively validate the fundamental laws. This is the direct inverse of the common opinion at the time. -
Publication of "The Dappled World"
"The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science synopsis" discusses the laws of nature, arguing that there is no unified and all-encompassing "theory of everything" that the universe is full of discrepancies and caveats that make one elegant unified theory impossible. She explains this point by reiterating her past work, that fundamental laws are fundamentally flawed because they require ideal circumstances. -
Publication of "Causation: One word, Many things"
As the title of the article suggests, Cartwright is discussing causation. Specifically, she is explaining how causation does not always mean the same thing in every situation. That causal relationships are not rigidly definable, but rather flexible in their meaning. She further discusses the human nature of inferring causal relationships from correlational data.
In this Video Cartwright discusses causality and causal relationships in science. -
Nancy Cartwright Delivers The Paul Carus lectures
Her Lecture series, entitled "Nature, the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World and How We Can Arrange It Better" explained how general theories are combined with local facts to make predictions about what will happen in nature, and how these predictions are used in science as well as non-scientific fields such as marketing and product development.
Cartwright references some of this idea in this video.
