Books by Nancy (Professor of Philosophy Cartwright

The Tangle of Science argues that the scientific method, rigour, and objectivity are insufficient to guarantee reliability. It shows how reliable science is underpinned by a vast network of other scientific products, brings into focus neglected areas of science, and emphasizes how every product works together to support results we can trust.

In this sequence of philosophical essays about natural science, Nancy Cartwright argues that fundamental explanatory laws, the deepest and most admired successes of modern physics, do not in fact describe the regularities that exist in nature. Yet she is not `anti-realist'. Rather, she draws a novel distinction, arguing that theoretical entities, and the complex and localized laws that describe them, can be interpreted realistically, but that the simple unifyinglaws of basic theory cannot.

`...an interesting and original contribution to the realist argument' The Times Higher Education Supplement.