Zusammenfassung
In this book Nancy Cartwright argues for a patchwork of laws of nature. Combining classic and newly written essays, The Dappled World offers important methodological lessons for both the natural and social sciences, and will interest anyone who wants to understand how modern science works.

Inhalt

Introduction; Part I. Where Do Laws of Nature Come From?: 1. Fundamentalism versus the patchwork of laws; 2. Fables and models; 3. Nomological machines and the laws they produce; Part II. Laws and their Limits: 4. Aristotelian natures and the modern experimental method; 5. Causal diversity, causal stability; 6. Ceteris paribus laws and the socio-economic machines; 7. Probability machines: chance set-ups and economic models; Part III. The Boundaries of Quantum and Classical Physics and the Territories they Share: 8. How bridge principles set the domain of quantum theory; 9. How quantum and classical theories relate.