Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Outputs (89)

Objectivity and Intellectual Humility in Scientific Research: They’re Harder Than You Think (2023)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., & Ray, F. (2023). Objectivity and Intellectual Humility in Scientific Research: They’re Harder Than You Think. European Review, 31(4), 367-381. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1062798723000091

We begin from the assumption that where scientific research will predictably be used to affect things of moral significance in the world, you have a special duty, a duty of care, to ‘get it right’. This, we argue, requires a special kind of objectivi... Read More about Objectivity and Intellectual Humility in Scientific Research: They’re Harder Than You Think.

Rigour versus the need for evidential diversity (2021)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2021). Rigour versus the need for evidential diversity. Synthese, 199(5-6), 13095-13119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03368-1

This paper defends the need for evidential diversity and the mix of methods that that can in train require. The focus is on causal claims, especially ‘singular’ claims about the effects of causes in a specific setting—either what will happen or what... Read More about Rigour versus the need for evidential diversity.

Mechanisms, laws and explanation (2020)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., Pemberton, J., & Wieten, S. (2020). Mechanisms, laws and explanation. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 10(3), Article 25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00284-y

Mechanisms are now taken widely in philosophy of science to provide one of modern science’s basic explanatory devices. This has raised lively debate concerning the relationship between mechanisms, laws and explanation. This paper focuses on cases whe... Read More about Mechanisms, laws and explanation.

Middle-range theory: Without it what could anyone do? (2020)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2020). Middle-range theory: Without it what could anyone do?. THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 35(3), 269-323. https://doi.org/10.1387/theoria.21479

Philosophers of science have had little to say about 'middle-range theory' although much of what is done in science and of what drives its successes falls under that label. These lectures aim to spark an interest in the topic and to lay groundwork fo... Read More about Middle-range theory: Without it what could anyone do?.

Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice: Predicting What Will Work Locally (2019)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., & Joyce, K. (2020). Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice: Predicting What Will Work Locally. American Educational Research Journal, 57(3), 1045-1082. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219866687

This essay addresses the gap between what works in research and what works in practice. Currently, research in evidence-based education policy and practice focuses on RCTs. These can support causal ascriptions (‘It worked’) but provide little basis f... Read More about Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice: Predicting What Will Work Locally.

What is meant by ‘rigour’ in evidence-based educational policy and what’s so good about it. (2019)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2019). What is meant by ‘rigour’ in evidence-based educational policy and what’s so good about it. Educational Research and Evaluation, https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2019.1617990

Across the evidence-based policy and practice (EBPP) community, including education, randomised controlled trials (RCTS) rank as the most “rigorous” evidence for causal conclusions. This paper argues that that is misleading. Only narrow conclusions a... Read More about What is meant by ‘rigour’ in evidence-based educational policy and what’s so good about it..

Cross-disciplinary evidence principles for social-environmental sustainability (2018)
Journal Article
Game, E., Tallis, H., Olander, L., Alexander, S., Busch, J., Cartwright, N., …Sutherland, W. (2018). Cross-disciplinary evidence principles for social-environmental sustainability. Nature Sustainability, 1(9), 452-454. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0141-x

Evidence-based approaches to sustainability challenges must draw on knowledge from the environment, development and health communities. To be practicable, this requires an approach to evidence that is broader and less hierarchical than the standards... Read More about Cross-disciplinary evidence principles for social-environmental sustainability.

What evidence should guidelines take note of? (2018)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2018). What evidence should guidelines take note of?. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 24(5), 1139-1144. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12959

The Guidelines Challenge Conference on which this special issue builds asked as the first of its “further relevant questions”: “How do we incorporate more types of causally relevant information in guidelines?” This paper first supports the presupposi... Read More about What evidence should guidelines take note of?.

Meeting Our Standards for Educational Justice: Doing Our Best with the Evidence (2018)
Journal Article
Joyce, K., & Cartwright, N. (2018). Meeting Our Standards for Educational Justice: Doing Our Best with the Evidence. Theory and Research in Education, 16(1), 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878518756565

The United States considers educating all students to a threshold of adequate outcomes to be a central goal of educational justice. The No Child Left Behind Act introduced evidence-based policy and accountability protocols to ensure that all students... Read More about Meeting Our Standards for Educational Justice: Doing Our Best with the Evidence.

Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials (2017)
Journal Article
Deaton, A., & Cartwright, N. (2018). Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials. Social Science & Medicine, 210, 2-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.12.005

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are increasingly popular in the social sciences, not only in medicine. We argue that the lay public, and sometimes researchers, put too much trust in RCTs over other methods of investigation. Contrary to frequent c... Read More about Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials.

Randomized Controlled Trials: How Can We Know “What Works”? (2017)
Journal Article
Cowen, N., Virk, B., Mascarenhan-Keyes, S., & Cartwright, N. (2017). Randomized Controlled Trials: How Can We Know “What Works”?. Critical Review, 29(3), 265-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/08913811.2017.1395223

“Evidence-based” methods, which most prominently include randomized controlled trials, have gained increasing purchase as the “gold standard” for assessing the effect of public policies. But the enthusiasm for evidence-based research overlooks questi... Read More about Randomized Controlled Trials: How Can We Know “What Works”?.

What’s so special about empirical adequacy? (2017)
Journal Article
Bhakthavatsalam, S., & Cartwright, N. (2017). What’s so special about empirical adequacy?. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 7(3), 445-465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-017-0171-7

Empirical adequacy matters directly - as it does for antirealists - if we aim to get all or most of the observable facts right, or indirectly - as it does for realists - as a symptom that the claims we make about the theoretical facts are right. But... Read More about What’s so special about empirical adequacy?.

Predicting What Will Happen When You Intervene (2017)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., Hardie, J., & Stringer, R. (2017). Predicting What Will Happen When You Intervene. Clinical Social Work Journal, 45(3), 270-279. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-016-0615-0

This paper offers some rules of thumb that practicing social workers can use for case studies that aim to construct, albeit not fully and never entirely reliably, models designed to help predict what will happen if they intervene in specific ways to... Read More about Predicting What Will Happen When You Intervene.

Big Systems Versus Stocky Tangles: It Can Matter to the Details (2017)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2018). Big Systems Versus Stocky Tangles: It Can Matter to the Details. Erkenntnis, 83(1), 3-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-016-9869-8

Wolfgang Spohn’s Frege prize lecture, like the work on which it is based, is a tour de force of rich, elegant, coherent argument about how the projected world that we experience is constructed. But we do not live in this projected world nor reason ab... Read More about Big Systems Versus Stocky Tangles: It Can Matter to the Details.

Where is the Rigor When You Need It? (2016)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2016). Where is the Rigor When You Need It?. Foundations and trends in accounting, 10(2-4), 106-124. https://doi.org/10.1561/1400000045

When it comes to causal conclusions, rigor matters. To this end we impose high standards for how studies from which we draw causal conclusions are conducted. For instance, we are widely urged to prefer randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or instrumen... Read More about Where is the Rigor When You Need It?.

Loose Talk Kills: What’s Worrying about Unity of Method (2016)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2016). Loose Talk Kills: What’s Worrying about Unity of Method. Philosophy of Science, 83(5), 768-778. https://doi.org/10.1086/687862

There is danger in stressing commonalities among methods because the differences matter in fixing the meaning of our claims. Different methods can, and often do, test the same claim. But it takes a strong network of theory and empirical results to en... Read More about Loose Talk Kills: What’s Worrying about Unity of Method.

Contingency and the order of nature (2016)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2016). Contingency and the order of nature. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 58, 56-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.12.008

Many profess faith in the universal rule of deterministic law. I urge remaining agnostic, putting into nature only what we need to account for what we know to be the case: order where, and to the extent that, we see it. Powers and mechanisms can do t... Read More about Contingency and the order of nature.

Scientific Models versus Social Reality (2015)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2015). Scientific Models versus Social Reality. Building Research and Information, 44(3-4), 334-337. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2015.1083811

Policy predictions fail for the very many different kinds of case-by-case local factors described in the Building Research & Information (2015) special issue (vol. 43/4) entitled ‘Closing the Policy Gaps: From Formulation to Outcomes'. Work in philos... Read More about Scientific Models versus Social Reality.

Ceteris paribus laws need machines to generate them (2014)
Journal Article
Pemberton, J., & Cartwright, N. (2014). Ceteris paribus laws need machines to generate them. Erkenntnis, 79(10), 1745-1758. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-014-9639-4

Most of the regularities that get represented as ‘laws’ in our sciences arise from, and are to be found regularly associated with, the successful operation of a nomological machine. Reference to the nomological machine must be included in the cp-clau... Read More about Ceteris paribus laws need machines to generate them.

A Question of Nonsense (2014)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2014). A Question of Nonsense. ywn, 63, 102-116

Presidential Address: Will This Policy Work for You? Predicting Effectiveness Better: How Philosophy Helps (2012)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2012). Presidential Address: Will This Policy Work for You? Predicting Effectiveness Better: How Philosophy Helps. Philosophy of Science, 79(5), 973-989. https://doi.org/10.1086/668041

There is a takeover movement fast gaining influence in development economics, a movement that demands that predictions about development outcomes be based on randomized controlled trials. The problem it takes up—of using evidence of efficacy from goo... Read More about Presidential Address: Will This Policy Work for You? Predicting Effectiveness Better: How Philosophy Helps.

Warranting the use of causal claims: a non-trivial case for interdisciplinarity (2012)
Journal Article
Rol, M., & Cartwright, N. (2012). Warranting the use of causal claims: a non-trivial case for interdisciplinarity. THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 27(2), 189-202. https://doi.org/10.1387/theoria.4075

To what use can causal claims established in good studies be put? We give examples of studies from which inaccurate inferences were made about target policy situations. The usual diagnosis is that the studies in question lack external validity, which... Read More about Warranting the use of causal claims: a non-trivial case for interdisciplinarity.

Predicting what will happen when we act. What counts for warrant? (2011)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2011). Predicting what will happen when we act. What counts for warrant?. Preventive Medicine, 53(4-5), 221-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2011.08.011

To what extent do the results of randomized controlled trials inform our predictions about the effectiveness of potential policy interventions? This crucial question is often overlooked in discussions about evidence-based policy. The view I defend is... Read More about Predicting what will happen when we act. What counts for warrant?.

Hunting Causes and Using Them: Is There No Bridge from Here to There? (2011)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., & Efstathiou, S. (2011). Hunting Causes and Using Them: Is There No Bridge from Here to There?. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 25(3), 223-241. https://doi.org/10.1080/02698595.2011.605245

Causation is in trouble—at least as it is pictured in current theories in philosophy and in economics as well, where causation is also once again in fashion. In both disciplines the accounts of causality on offer are either modelled too closely on on... Read More about Hunting Causes and Using Them: Is There No Bridge from Here to There?.

A philosopher's view of the long road from RCTs to effectiveness. (2011)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2011). A philosopher's view of the long road from RCTs to effectiveness. The Lancet, 377(9775), 1400-1401. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736%2811%2960563-1

For evidence-based practice and policy, randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are the current gold standard. But exactly why? We know that RCTs do not, without a series of strong assumptions, warrant predictions about what happens in practice. But just... Read More about A philosopher's view of the long road from RCTs to effectiveness..

Does Roush show that evidence should be probable? (2010)
Journal Article
Fennell, D., & Cartwright, N. (2010). Does Roush show that evidence should be probable?. Synthese, 175(3), 289-310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-009-9510-3

This paper critically analyzes Sherrilyn Roush’s (Tracking truth: knowledge, evidence and science, 2005) definition of evidence and especially her powerful defence that in the ideal, a claim should be probable to be evidence for anything. We suggest... Read More about Does Roush show that evidence should be probable?.

The limitations of randomized controlled trials in predicting effectiveness (2010)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., & Munro, E. (2010). The limitations of randomized controlled trials in predicting effectiveness. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 16(2), 260-266. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2753.2010.01382.x

What kinds of evidence reliably support predictions of effectiveness for health and social care interventions? There is increasing reliance, not only for health care policy and practice but also for more general social and economic policy deliberatio... Read More about The limitations of randomized controlled trials in predicting effectiveness.

Hunting Causes and Using Them: Approaches in Philosophy and Economics (2010)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2010). Hunting Causes and Using Them: Approaches in Philosophy and Economics. Analysis, 70(2), 307-310. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anp157

Hunting Causes and Using Them: Approaches in Philosophy and Economics (HC&UT) is about notions of causality appropriate to the sciences, mostly generic causal claims (causal laws) and especially notions that connect causality with probability.1 Most... Read More about Hunting Causes and Using Them: Approaches in Philosophy and Economics.

Evidence-Based Policy: Where Is Our Theory of Evidence? (2010)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., Goldfinch, A., & Howick, J. (2010). Evidence-Based Policy: Where Is Our Theory of Evidence?. Journal of Children's Services, 4(4), 6-14. https://doi.org/10.5042/jcs.2010.0017

This article critically analyses the concept of evidence in evidence‐based policy, arguing that there is a key problem: there is no existing practicable theory of evidence, one which is philosophically‐grounded and yet applicable for evidence‐based p... Read More about Evidence-Based Policy: Where Is Our Theory of Evidence?.

What are randomised controlled trials good for? (2010)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2010). What are randomised controlled trials good for?. Philosophical Studies, 147(1), 59-70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-009-9450-2

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are widely taken as the gold standard for establishing causal conclusions. Ideally conducted they ensure that the treatment ‘causes’ the outcome—in the experiment. But where else? This is the venerable question of... Read More about What are randomised controlled trials good for?.

How To Do Things with Causes (2009)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. D. (2009). How To Do Things with Causes. Proceedings and addresses of the American Philosophical Association, 83(2), 5-22

If No Capacities then No Credible Worlds. But Can Models Reveal Capacities? (2009)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2009). If No Capacities then No Credible Worlds. But Can Models Reveal Capacities?. Erkenntnis, 70(1), 45-48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-008-9136-8

This paper argues that even when simple analogue models picture parallel worlds, they generally still serve as isolating tools. But there are serious obstacles that often stop them isolating in just the right way. These are obstacles that face any mo... Read More about If No Capacities then No Credible Worlds. But Can Models Reveal Capacities?.

Theories: Tools versus Models (2008)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., & Suarez, M. (2008). Theories: Tools versus Models. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 39(1), 61-81

Well-Ordered Science: Evidence for Use (2006)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2006). Well-Ordered Science: Evidence for Use. Philosophy of Science, 73(5), 981-990. https://doi.org/10.1086/518803

This article agrees with Philip Kitcher that we should aim for a well‐ordered science, one that answers the right questions in the right ways. Crucial to this is to address questions of use: Which scientific account is right for which system in which... Read More about Well-Ordered Science: Evidence for Use.

Introduction (2002)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2002). Introduction

Reply (2002)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (2002). Reply

Endpiece (2000)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N., & Suárez, M. (2000). Endpiece. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 15, 123-128

Probabilities and Experiments (1995)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (1995). Probabilities and Experiments. Journal of Econometrics, 65(1), 47-59

A Non-Negative Wigner-Type Distribution (1975)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (1975). A Non-Negative Wigner-Type Distribution. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 83(1), 210-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-4371%2876%2990145-x

The Wigner function, which is commonly used as a joint distribution for non-commuting observables, is shown to be non-negative in all quantum states when smoothed with a gaussian whose variances are greater than or equal to those of the minimum uncer... Read More about A Non-Negative Wigner-Type Distribution.

Correlations without joint distributions in quantum mechanics. (1974)
Journal Article
Cartwright, N. (1974). Correlations without joint distributions in quantum mechanics. Foundations of Physics, 4(1), 127-136. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00708563

The use of joint distribution functions for noncommuting observables in quantum thermodynamics is investigated in the light of L. Cohen's proof that such distributions are not determined by the quantum state. Cohen's proof is irrelevant to uses of th... Read More about Correlations without joint distributions in quantum mechanics..