Cartwright, Nancy Professor of Philosophy, London School of Economics and Political Science
Nature's Capacities and Their Measurement
Print ISBN 0198235070, 1994
doi:10.1093/0198235070.001.0001
Abstract: This book on the philosophy of science argues for an empiricism, opposed to the tradition of David Hume, in which singular rather than general causal claims are primary; causal laws express facts about singular causes whereas the general causal claims of science are ascriptions of capacities or causal powers, capacities to make things happen. Taking science as measurement, Cartwright argues that capacities are necessary for science and that these can be measured, provided suitable conditions are met. There are case studies from both econometrics and quantum mechanics.
Keywords: capacities,Nancy Cartwright,causal powers,cause,econometrics,empiricism,measurement,philosophy of science,quantum mechanics
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Nancy Cartwright 1989
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end p.iv
Acknowledgements
Many of the ideas in this book have evolved in conversation with John Dupr, and the work on abstraction has been deeply influenced by Henry Mendell. Indeed, section is taken almost verbatim from a paper which Mendell and I have written together. I have learned about econometrics and its history from Mary Morgan, about exogeneity in econometrics from Anindya Banerjee, and about the classical probabilists and associationist psychology from Lorraine Daston. My concern to embed empiricism in practice has been heightened, and my views have become more developed, by working with the historians of science Norton Wise, Tim Lenoir, and Peter Galison. Part of the research for the book was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant No. SES8702931), and it was written while I was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, where Elissa Linke typed it. Corrections throughout are due to J. B. Kennedy, who was helped by Hibi Pendleton. I want to thank the Wissenschaftskolleg, the NSF, and all the other people who have helped.
end p.vii