Nature's Capacities and Their Measurements (Clarendon Paperbacks) - Softcover

Cartwright, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198235070 ISBN 13: 9780198235071

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA, 1994

Synopsis

Ever since David Hume, empiricists have barred powers and capacities from nature. In this book Cartwright argues that capacities are essential in our scientific world, and, contrary to empiricist orthodoxy, that they can meet sufficiently strict demands for testability. Econometrics is one discipline where probabilities are used to measure causal capacities, and the technology of modern physics provides several examples of testing capacities (such as lasers) Cartwright concludes by applying the lessons of the book about capacities and probabilities to the explanation of the role of causality in quantum mechanics.

About this title

Review:

an interesting and original contribution to the realist argument"L.Jonathan Cohen, Times Higher Education Supplment

an extremely important and worthwhile book. Cartwright has ventured into exciting but largely unknown philosophical terrain ... all philosophers of causation will profit greatly from her explorations ... she has introduced a number of important new strands to the theory of causation ... [the] wealth of detail gives the book a depth of purpose which is rare in the philosophy of science. (British Journal for the Philosophy of Science)

Synopsis:

This book argues for the place of capacities within an grounds of meaning, not method. Yet it is questions of method that should concern the modern empiricist: can capacities be measured? Cartwright argues that they are measured if anything is. Stanford University's Gravity-Probe-B will measure capacities in a cryogenic dewar deep in space. More mundanely, we use probabilities to measure capacities, and the assumptions required to ensure that probabilities are a reliable instrument are investigated in the opening chapters of this book, where the early methods of econometrics set a model. The last chapter applies lessons about probabilities and capacities to quantum mechanics and the Bell inequalities. The central thesis throughout is that capacities not only can be admitted by empiricists, but indeed must be - otherwise the empirical methods of modern science will make no sense.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0198235070
• ISBN 13: 9780198235071
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280