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Nancy Cartwright (1944 - present)

By Schamplain
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    Nancy Cartwright (1944 - present)

    American philosopher (at Stanford and the London School of Econoics) who views the higher-level laws of physics as instruments of explanation and prediction which are not true, and whose predictive and explanatory value does not require them to be true. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199264797.001.0001/acref-9780199264797-e-345

  • Bachelor of Science in Mathematics

    Dr. Cartwright graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.

  • Ph.D.

    In 1971, she accepted her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
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    Awards Given

    1993 Fellow, MacArthur Foundation
    1987 Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study), Berlin
    1982 Fellow, ZiF (Center for Interdisciplinary Research), Bielefeld, Germany
    1971 Postdoctoral Fellow, U.S. National Science Foundation, Cambridge University
    https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Cartwright_Nancy

  • Wrote a book - How the Laws of Physics Lie (1983)

    How the Laws of Physics Lie (1983)
    https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/nancy-cartwright

  • Wrote a book - Nature's Capacities and their Measurement (1989)

    Nature's Capacities and their Measurement (1989) https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/nancy-cartwright
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    Professor of Philosophy

    1991 - 2012 Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Cartwright_Nancy

  • Wrote a book - Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and Politics [with J Cat, K Fleck & T Uebel] (1995)

    Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and Politics [with J Cat, K Fleck & T Uebel] (1995) Nancy Cartwright (lse.ac.uk)
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    Awards Given

    2002 Associate Member, Nuffield College, Oxford
    2001 Foreign Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Science
    1999 Member, Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (The German National Academy of Natural Science)
    1996 Fellow, British Academy
    1996 Old Dominion Fellow, Philosophy, Princeton University
    https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Cartwright_Nancy

  • Wrote a book - The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science (1999)

    The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science (1999) Nancy Cartwright (lse.ac.uk) https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/nancy-cartwright

  • Wrote a book - Measuring Causes: Invariance, Modularity and the Causal Markov Condition (2000)

    Measuring Causes: Invariance, Modularity and the Causal Markov Condition (2000) Nancy Cartwright (lse.ac.uk) https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/nancy-cartwright

  • Death of first husband

    Cartwright was married to the philosopher Stuart Hampshire until his death in 2004
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    Co-edited Three Book

    Co-edited three collections: Rethinking Order: After the Laws of Nature [with K Ward] (forthcoming), Philosophy of Social Science: A New Introduction [with Eleonora Montuschi] (2014), and Idealization XII: Correcting the Models. Idealization and Abstraction in the Sciences [with M. R. Jones] 2005.

  • Wrote a book - Hunting Causes and Using Them (2007)

    Hunting Causes and Using Them (2007) Nancy Cartwright (lse.ac.uk) https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/nancy-cartwright

  • Wrote a book - Causal Powers: What Are They? Why Do We Need Them? What Can be Done with Them and What Cannot (2007 Evidence Based Policy: A Practical Guide to Doing it Better [with Jeremy Hardie] (2012)

    Causal Powers: What Are They? Why Do We Need Them? What Can be Done with Them and What Cannot (2007 Evidence Based Policy: A Practical Guide to Doing it Better [with Jeremy Hardie] (2012) Nancy Cartwright (lse.ac.uk) https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/nancy-cartwright
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    Awards Given

    2014 Tsing Hua Honorary Distinguished Chair Professor, awarded by the National Tsing Hua University
    2013 Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, University of St Andrews
    2012 Medallion, Distinguished Alumna, University of Pittsburgh
    2008 President, American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division)
    2008 President, Philosophy of Science Association
    2007 Titular Member, Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (A.I.P.S.) https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Cartwright_Nancy

  • Achievement (2008)

    Nancy Cartwright is Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Durham and at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She is past President of the Philosophy of Science Association and was President of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division) in 2008.
    https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/nancy-cartwright

  • Wrote a book - Evidence: For Policy and Wheresoever Rigor is a Must (2013)

    Evidence: For Policy and Wheresoever Rigor is a Must (2013) Nancy Cartwright (lse.ac.uk) https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/nancy-cartwright
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    Awards Given

    2017 Carus Lectures (APA 2017 Pacific Division Meeting), Seattle:
    2017 The Martin R. Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement of the Phi Beta Kappa Society (alongside Elliott Sober)
    2016 Associate Member, Senior Common Room at Wadham College, Oxford
    2016 Fellow, The Academy of Social Sciences
    2015 John Dewey Lecture: 2015 Pacific Division APA meeting
    https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Cartwright_Nancy

  • Hempel Award

    Nancy was the first woman to be honored with the esteemed Hempel award. Cartwright said she was “exceedingly lucky” to have support and encouragement from a wide range of people: teachers and colleagues, students, administrative staff throughout her entire career, and family and friends. https://www.newswise.com/articles/philosopher-nancy-cartwright-honored-for-lifetime-scholarly-achievement

  • Speech

    Evidence-based policy has been all the rage for over a decade. Clearly it is better to inform decisions by evidence than merely by ideology, wishful thinking or casual observation. But the methods standardly recommended – that social policy imitate evidence-based medicine, relying on gold-standard randomized-controlled-trials – are a bad way of using evidence to predict if policies will work in practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8xExUWIvBk

  • Wrote a book - “Nature, the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World and How We Can Arrange It Better,” published in May (2019)

    “Nature, the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World and How We Can Arrange It Better,” published in May (2019). https://www.newswise.com/articles/philosopher-nancy-cartwright-honored-for-lifetime-scholarly-achievement

  • Fields of Scholarship

    History and philosophy of science (especially physics and economics)
    Philosophy of social technology
    Causal inference
    Objectivity in science
    Evidence, especially for evidence-based policy
    https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Cartwright_Nancy