A Philosopher Looks at Science

Description

What is science and what can it do? Nancy Cartwright here takes issue with three common images of science: that it amounts to the combination of theory and experiment; that all science is basically reducible to physics; and that science and the natural world which it pictures are deterministic. The author's innovative and thoughtful book draws on examples from the physical, life, and social sciences alike, and focuses on all the products of science – not just experiments or theories – and how they work together. She reveals just what it is that makes science ultimately reliable, and how this reliability is nevertheless still compatible with a view of nature as more responsive to human change than we might think. Her book is a call for greater intellectual humility by and within scientific institutions. It will have strong appeal to anyone who thinks about science and how it is practised in society. A refreshing, engaging and authoritative new take on science by one of our foremost contemporary philosophers Shows what is wrong with common perceptions of science and argues for a more nuanced approach Highlights why intellectual humility in scientific institutions matters and what can go wrong when this is absent Introduction 2 Science = Theory + Experiment 3 It’s All Physics Really 5 The Laws of Physics Fix Happenings Deterministically 7 What’s Wrong with These Three Images? 8 1 Theory + Experiment Do Not a Science Make 12 Preface 12 The Centrality of Theory and Experiment, Knowledge and Observation 17 The Melange of Theory Ingredients 19 Concepts 20 Defining Concepts 21 Stabilising Concepts 32 Misusing Concepts 34 Models and Narratives 53 Diagrams, Illustrations and Graphs 58 Experiments and the Testing of Theory 60 Experiments: A Life of Their Own 62 Exploring 63 Creating Phenomena 66 Reconstituting Phenomena 67 You Can’t Build an Experiment without a Gigantic Meccano Set 71 2 Dethroning the Queen 80 Preface 80 The Mechanical Philosophy and Its Legacy 83 Physicalism and Materialism 86 How Philosophers Talk about Reduction 89 Type-Type Reduction 91 Token-Token Reduction 93 Supervenience 97 Grounding 101 Why Chemistry Isn’t All Physics 103 Even Physics Isn’t All Physics 107 Unity at the Point of Action 120 3 A Nature More Negotiable 122 Preface 122 Whence ‘Dappled’? 126 The Disappearance of Diversity 128 A Contemporary Example Where Difference Mattered 134 A Review of the Argument for Absolute Rule 136 Arguing from Science to the World 140 Where Is Physics Successful? 144 Tendency Laws and How to Understand Them 156 In Sum 165 Parting Thoughts 168 Some Starting Cases to Consider 169 Diagnosis 177 Take-Home Message 181 Anthony Fauci, AIDS and the Parallel Track 182 Barbara McClintock and the Right to Be Different 186 Conclusion 188 Notes 189 Bibliography 195 Index 202