| Description |
221 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
|
text txt rdacontent |
|
unmediated n rdamedia |
|
volume nc rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| Summary |
In this sequence of philosophical essays about natural science, the author argues that fundamental explanatory laws, the deepest and most admired successes of modern physics, do not in fact describe regularities that exist in nature. Cartwright draws from many real-life examples to propound a novel distinction: that theoretical entities, and the complex and localized laws that describe them, can be interpreted realistically, but the simple unifying laws of basic theory cannot. |
| Contents |
Causal laws and effective strategies -- The truth doesn't explain much -- Do the laws of physics state the facts? -- The reality of causes in a world of instrumental laws -- When explanation leads to inference -- For phenomenological laws -- Fitting facts to equations -- The simulacrum account of explanation -- How the measurement problem is an artefact of the mathematics. |
| Subject |
Physics -- Philosophy.
|
|
Physics -- Philosophy.
(OCoLC)fst01063079
|
| ISBN |
0198247001 |
|
9780198247005 |
|
0198247044 (pbk.) |
|
9780198247043 (pbk.) |
|
