How the Laws of Physics Lie

Nancy Cartwright

Clarendon Press, 1983 - Philosophy - 221 pages

Acknowledgements p. vii Introduction p. 1 Essay 1 Causal Laws and Effective Strategies p. 21 Essay 2 The Truth Doesn't Explain Much p. 44 Essay 3 Do the Laws of Physics State the Facts? p. 54 Essay 4 The Reality of Causes In a World of Instrumental Laws p. 74 Essay 5 When Explanation Leads to Inference p. 87 Essay 6 For Phenomenological Laws p. 100 Essay 7 Fitting Facts to Equations p. 128 Essay 8 The Simulacrum Account of Explanation p. 143 Essay 9 How the Measurement Problem Is an Artefact of the Mathematics p. 163 Appendix; an Experiment to Test Reduction of the Wave Packet p. 206 Author Index p. 217 Subject Index p. 219.

About the author

Nancy Cartwright is Professor Philosophy, London School of Economics.

Bibliographic information

• Title: How the Laws of Physics Lie; Clarendon paperbacks; Oxford scholarship online
• Author: Nancy Cartwright
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1983
• ISBN: 0198247044, 9780198247043
• Length: 221 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / Logic; Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects; Science / Physics / General