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Outputs (220)

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.

Why Trust Science? Reliability, Particularity and the Tangle of Science (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Cartwright, N. (2020, December). Why Trust Science? Reliability, Particularity and the Tangle of Science. Presented at Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Online via Zoom

In evaluating science, philosophers tends to focus on general laws and on their truth. I urge a shift in focus to the reliability of the panoply of outputs science produces and in tandem, from the general to the particular. Here I give five arguments... Read More about Why Trust Science? Reliability, Particularity and the Tangle of Science.

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, 25(1-2), 63-80. 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..

Nature the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World, and How We Can Arrange It Better. The 2017 Carus Lectures (2019)
Book
Cartwright, N. (2019). Nature the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World, and How We Can Arrange It Better. The 2017 Carus Lectures. Open Court

How fixed are the happenings in Nature and how are they fixed? These lectures address what our scientific successes at predicting and manipulating the world around us suggest in answer. One--very orthodox--account teaches that the sciences offer gene... Read More about Nature the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World, and How We Can Arrange It Better. The 2017 Carus Lectures.

Will Your Policy Work? Experiments versus Models (2018)
Book Chapter
Cartwright, N. (2018). Will Your Policy Work? Experiments versus Models. In I. Peschard, & B. van Frassen (Eds.), The experimental side of modeling. University of Minnesota Press

Cross-disciplinary evidence principles for social-environmental sustainability (2018)
Journal Article
Game, E., Tallis, H., Olander, L., Alexander, S., Busch, J., Cartwright, N., Kalies, E., Masuda, Y., Mupepele, A., Qiu, J., Rooney, A., Sills, E., & 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.

Are laws of nature consistent with contingency? (2018)
Book Chapter
Cartwright, N., & Merlussi, P. (2018). Are laws of nature consistent with contingency?. In W. Ott, & L. Patto (Eds.), Laws of Nature, an anthology (221-244). Oxford University Press

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?.