Nancy Cartwright

Nancy Cartwright

Born	(1944-01-24) January 24, 1944 (age 68) Pennsylvania, United States[1]
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Analytic philosophy
Main interests	Philosophy of science Philosophy of economics Philosophy of physics
Influenced by Brian Skyrms, Aristotle, Arthur Fine

Nancy Cartwright FBA (born January 24, 1944) is a professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics and the University of California at San Diego, and a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Cartwright served as the president of the Philosophy of Science Association (2009–10)^[2] and as vice-president (2007–8) and president (2008–9) of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association.^[3] She is Fellow of the British Academy and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.^[4]

Cartwright earned her BSc from the University of Pittsburgh in mathematics in 1966 and her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago under the direction of Brian Skyrms. Her thesis, completed in 1971, was on the concept of mixture in quantum mechanics. Before taking her current appointments at the LSE (1991) and UC San Diego (1998), she taught at the University of Maryland and Stanford University. Her research interests include the history and philosophy of science, especially economics and physics, and causal inference and objectivity in science. She has also written on the history of logical positivism. Her approach to the philosophy of science is associated with the so-called "Stanford School" of Patrick Suppes, John Dupré, Peter Galison and Ian Hacking. Cartwright has mentored several students in England and the United States who have gone on to become professional philosophers of science, including Naomi Oreskes, Carl Hoefer, Mauricio Suarez, Andrew Hamilton, Julian Reiss, Roman Frigg, Gabriele Contessa, Anna Alexandrova, and Jacob Stegenga. She was also a supervisor of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.^[5]

Cartwright was married to the philosopher Sir Stuart Hampshire until his death in 2004.^[4] She was also previously married to Ian Hacking.

See also

Cat, Jordi, "The Unity of Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

References

Bibliography

• How the Laws of Physics Lie, Oxford University Press (August 1983) ISBN 0-19-824704-4. Translated to Chinese.
• Nature's Capacities and Their Measurement, Oxford University Press (October 1989) ISBN 0-19-824477-0
• The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science, Cambridge University Press (September 1999) ISBN 0-521-64411-9
• Hunting Causes and Using Them: Approaches in Philosophy and Economics, Cambridge University Press (June 2007) ISBN 0-521-86081-4. Translated to Chinese.

External links

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