1 | Name: | Dr. Nancy D. Cartwright | |
Institution: | University of California, San Diego; Durham University | ||
Year Elected: | 2004 | ||
Class: | 4. Humanities | ||
Subdivision: | 406. Linguistics | ||
Residency: | Resident | ||
Living? : | Living | ||
Birth Date: | 1944 | ||
Nancy Cartwright is one of the most distinguished philosophers of science currently active in the English-speaking world. There is a unifying theme that runs through the five books and many of the articles she has published. This theme concerns the inevitable nature of the approximations and of the limitations of what we can hope, even in principle, to accomplish in science. These ideas are developed not in terms of grand generalities but by detailed consideration of many examples from a great variety of disciplines, especially economics and physics. Her focus is also often on the significance of the positive results we can expect. She is best known for her extensive publications on the nature of causality and scientific laws. Dr. Cartwright has served as Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science since 1991 and as Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego since 1998. She left LSE and joined the Philosophy Department at Durham University in autumn 2012, to set up a new Centre broadly concerned with "Knowledge, Culture and the Public Good". In addition to working at Durham University, she is Distinguished Professor at University of California, San Diego. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1971. |