Nancy Cartwright (philosopher)

Nancy Cartwright (born 1943) is a professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics. Her research interests include the history and philosophy of science, especially economics and physics, and causal inference and objectivity in science.

Laws of science

Nancy Cartwright puts forth the argument that the idealized laws of physics are strictly false, and that the true description of any real physical system will not include generalized laws. Rather, she believes that specialized and less fundamental laws are needed to fully describe the universe.

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For example, Isaac Newton's famous law of gravitation is

Related Topics:
Isaac Newton - Gravitation

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F = G rac{mm'}{r^2}

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, which is an ideal law relating the force exerted by two masses at a distance. Cartwright says that this ideal law poses a problem since there will never be an ideal situation where only the force of gravity is acting on two masses. Therefore, this law can only be true under very simple circumstances.

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